Patient Stories
Leanne Leach
 We’ve seen a lot of changes in Leanne over the past four years. In December 2003, Leanne was diagnosed with bone cancer at 11 years of age.
She firstly underwent intensive chemotherapy treatment to shrink the quite large tumour, which resulted in her weight dropping from 45kgs to a mere 19kgs. An operation was then performed to remove the tumour,
Leanne’s leg was saved, however 15 cms of bone was removed.
Whilst Leanne now looks and is fabulous, with the personality of an angel, she still faces many challenges and struggles with the process of growing that bone back, either through bone grafts or limb lengthening.
Angus Stain
 10 year old Angus, suffers from a rare medical condition called "Multiple Exosteses" in which multiple bony spurs or lumps develop on his bones.
It is likely he will undergo many painful bone surgeries throughout his life to remove these bony spurs as they cause him discomfort and become restricting. Angus was a fabulous BGF ambassador at the 2007 Gerard McCabe Jewellers Celebrity Tennis Challenge and worked hard in his special role as a "ballboy".
Sam Kupke
 Sam Kupke kindly donated his time to speak with Andrew Denton at the 2008 Gerard McCabe Jewellers Celebrity Tennis Challenge to tell his story.
At thirteen years of age, Sam was playing “Aussie Rules” footy when he broke his femur – going for a specky??!!. The femur was fractured across the bone’s growth plate which resulted in his femurs growth being stopped. Sam still had a couple of years growing to do and as a result by the age of fifteen one leg was shorter than the other by 5 cms.
He had to make the decision to either shorten his ‘good’ leg or lengthen his shorter one, the family
chose the lengthening process after hearing its praises from the Bone Growth Foundation.
In August 2007, Dr Bruce Foster, implanted the “Fitbone” internal limb lengthening device into Sam’s stunted femur and stretched the bone the required 5 cms to gain limb equalisation, a wonderful success story. It was discovered Sam’s bones were extremely brittle and tough – with two chisels and a drill being broken in this operation.
Sam was on crutches for about 6 months and is now thinking about getting back out onto the footy field to try his luck again. |
