Scottish Independent Media

Story by Claire Elliot

PETITE Darcie Laird told last night how a numb feeling across her tummy button turned out to be a tumour - the size of a melon.

The 15-year-old’s world was torn apart when she was diagnosed with a rare cancer, which affects just two in a million people a year.

Her parents Stuart and Claire thought the numb sensation was just her body changing as she had started her periods only a few months earlier.

But the next day, after a visit to her GP, the schoolgirl was rushed into Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where doctors confirmed she had a growth on her ovary, measuring a whopping 14x10cm.

Darcie, from Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, said: “I couldn’t believe it. I was just in shock.

“I went to the doctors after school and he took a look at my tummy and said it shouldn’t look like that. He took a pregnancy test, which obviously came back negative, and then I was sent straight to hospital.

“It all happened so quickly. I didn’t have time to think about it..

“But when I was being taken down to the operating table it all kicked in and I got really scared. But it was a relief when they took it out.”

Surgeons took five hours to remove the rare germ cell tumour, an ovary, one of her fallopian tubes and four lymph nodes.

Her lymph nodes, which are part of the immune system, had appeared swollen and were removed for testing as surgeons feared it was a sign the cancer may have spread to other parts of her body.

It was an agonising wait for the results but, a fortnight later, Darcie and her parents got the good news that the cancer had been contained within the tumour.

Recalling the family’s ordeal, Mrs Laird, who is also mum to Zane, seven, and Stuart, four,, said their lives were “shattered” when doctors confirmed Darcie had cancer.

The 38-year-old hairdresser said her husband was so upset that he went into shock.

She said: “It was the worst thing to happen to us in our lives.

“And it just seemed every time the doctors told us something it was bad news.

“Everything just seemed to go from being 100% fine to being our worst nightmare in the space of an hour..

“Before then Darcie had never complained of feeling unwell.”

The teenager, who spent eight days in hospital, had been trying on her bridesmaid’s dress ahead of her uncle’s wedding in Florida when she complained that her tummy button felt numb and swollen.

She was due to fly out for the ceremony nine days later - and doctors said the air pressure of the flight could have been enough to kill her.

Mrs Laird, said: “We thought it was just her body changing because she had just started her periods at Christmas time.

“But I thought she’d be complaining of cramps not a numb feeling. It didn’t sound quite right so we decided to get her down to the doctors.

“I wouldn’t like to think what would have happened if we hadn’t.

“He thought she looked about five months pregnant and sent us straight through to Aberdeen.

“We were in the doctors at 4pm and by 5.30pm we were on our way to hospital.”

The next day an ultra-sound scan confirmed the growth on her ovary, a full-body scan the day after revealed the size of it, and on the third day she got her operation to remove it.

The rare cancer, called a germ cell tumour, or a germenoma, affects mainly teenagers and is thought to be triggered by changes in hormone levels.

Mrs Laird said: “It was some size of tumour for only a little body. Darcie is only about a size six and the tumour was 14cm by 10cm - about the size of a melon.”

Darcie, who has been left with a 25cm scar, needed 25 staples and four stitches, following the operation.

Her weight plummeted and as she was unable to face solid foods she had to drink energy drinks to build up her strength.

She was also unable to sit her standard grade exams at Peterhead Academy.

Darcie, who wants to study nursing following her hospital experience, is now repeating her fourth year and will sit her exams next year.

Her dad, a marine electronic engineer, heaped praise of the hospital staff for acting so quickly.

He said: “No one could ever prepare themselves for something like that. But Darcie was really brave through it all. If she asked us a question we told her the truth. We didn’t hide anything from her. But as she’s only 15 we didn’t want to scare her.

“But we can’t thank the staff at the hospital enough. She was treated like a princess in there.”

The family is now raising funds for the gynaecology ward at the hospital, where she was treated.

Darcie continues to get three monthly check-ups but at her last appointment in June tests gave her the all-clear.

In photo Darcie Laird with her mum Claire and dad Stuart