Heartbreak as new mother whose bone cancer symptoms were misdiagnosed as an exercise injury dies aged 33 - just nine months after she first complained of hip pains
- Yesterday, MailOnline told the tragic story of Kaley Fitzsimmons
- Three months after giving birth, she complained of pain in her hip
- GP told her she'd 'overdone it' and referred her to see a physiotherapist
- Scans later revealed a mass on her leg, diagnosed as bone cancer
- Ms Fitzsimmonds, a sports coach, was told last week she had days to live
- Her family announced today she passed way at 7.31am this morning
A new mother told her excruciating hip pain was due to 'over-exercising' has died from bone cancer aged just 33.
Kaley Fitzsimmons passed away this morning just hours after her heartbreaking plight was revealed on MailOnline.
Yesterday she had issued a heartbreaking appeal from her deathbed after doctors blamed signs of cancer on doing too much sport after the birth of her baby daughter.
She said: 'If any good can come out of this it will be that no other women die because their cancer symptoms are dismissed because they have recently had a baby.'
Her family had been told she had as little as two hours left to live on Friday - but she clung on to life for five further days.
Today, her sisters Donya and Tyrell said in a statement: ‘Kaley peacefully and painlessly was taken at 7.31am this morning whilst in mum and dad’s arms. She put up one hell of a fight.
Kaley Fitzsimmons, who was diagnosed with advanced bone cancer after doctors blamed signs of cancer on ‘over exercising’, died today aged 33. She leaves behind her one-year-old daughter, Gracie
Ms Fitzsimmons, a sports instructor, began to suffer pain in her legs three months after giving birth. In a heartbreaking plea from her deathbed yesterday, she urged others to dismiss potentially deadly symptoms
‘Doctors said she would pass on Saturday, but she had to prove them wrong. We fought with her the whole time she did.
‘We, her family, believed in miracles and had so much hope until 7.31am this today.’
Donya recalled how nurses who had cared for Kaley had made time to visit her on their days off.
She said: ‘That just proves how much impact she had. Her last words to us were ‘thank you for being here.’
‘Our promise to Kaley is to be more thoughtful and more caring, just like her.’
The sisters have vowed to continue their fundraising Ms Fitzsimmons' young daughter Gracie, aged one.
Following the publication of her story yesterday more than £2,000 was donated to the appeal for Gracie’s fund.
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Tragically, Ms Fitzsimmons, 33, had achieved her dream of becoming a mother thanks to a successful kidney transplant – but the misdiagnosis means she will not live to watch her grow up.
The sports instructor from Birmingham had reported pain in her hip after returning to work three months after the birth of her daughter Gracie.
But her GP told her she had ‘overdone it’ and when she returned with worsening pain arranged physiotherapy for a suspected muscle strain.
Eventually she was in so much pain she had not slept for four nights and was finally referred for a scan that revealed a mass.
Despite chemotherapy and the full amputation of her right leg in May, the cancer spread to her lungs and last week she was given days to live.
Speaking yesterday, she said: ‘I feel let down. It was too easy to blame my symptoms on the fact I had started exercise again after having my baby. If I hadn’t recently had my baby the pain would have been properly investigated.
‘Instead I was dismissed and the cancer left to grow for almost seven months.
I don’t feel sorry for myself, I feel sorry for my daughter who has only just turned one and my partner. I love them so much and don’t want to leave them.’
Eventually, the 33-year-old was in so much pain she had not slept for four nights and was finally referred for a scan that revealed a mass. She is pictured with her partner Jason and their daughter, left
A qualified fitness coach, Ms Fitzsimmons underwent a kidney transplant aged 15 after suffering kidney failure aged 13.
Her quality of life improved dramatically and the keen athlete was thrilled to be able to return to sport, representing Britain in the Transplant Games at which she won several gold medals for track and field events.
She met partner Jason Cox, 40, at university aged 21 and was thrilled to become pregnant with their first child in 2013.
Ms Fitzsimmons said: ‘I had always wanted to be a mother and was grateful that my transplant had made that possible. We were over the moon.’
Her daughter Gracie was delivered by emergency section nine weeks prematurely weighing just 3lb 10z in April last year after Ms Fitzsimmons was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia.
She said: ‘Gracie looked so tiny and fragile I was scared to hold her at first.
‘She needed oxygen and a feeding tube but she was strong and started putting on weight.’
After ten weeks in hospital Gracie was discharged.
Her mother said: ‘We were so relieved. It felt like we could finally enjoy being a family at last.’
Ms Fitzsimmons followed advice to refrain from exercise for three months after the the birth before to returning to work at her local gym teaching classes.
But during a kick she felt a ‘pop’ in her groin that she says she knew instantly was not right.
She explains: 'I felt physically fit and well so I knew what I had felt was not normal but my GP insisted it was postnatal and that perhaps I had "overdone it".
But as the pain in her hip grew worse, she was forced to make several more appointments with her GP.
Each time she was advised it was a muscle injury caused by postnatal exercise.
She said: ‘I did feel fobbed off because I knew my body. I wasn’t one for going to the doctors over nothing and felt it wasn’t being taken seriously.’
Despite chemotherapy and the full amputation of her right leg in May, the cancer spread to her lungs and last week Ms Fitzsimmons was given days to live. She died 'peacefully' this morning, her family said
Eventually, after several visits over almost seven months, she tearfully pleaded for investigations.
She recalled: ‘I had never been in so much pain and by now I felt sure that this wasn’t a postnatal exercise injury.
‘I had gone four nights with no sleep, I could barely walk and I just cried and begged for help.’
And an MRI scan on December 23rd last year confirmed her worst fears - a mass on her pelvis.
She said: 'I was in shock, but at that stage we didn’t know what it was so I was told to enjoy Christmas. It was our first as a family and I had no idea then that it might also be our last.
‘We carried on as normal because I didn’t want people panicking over nothing.’
But in January, more scans and a biopsy revealed the mass was a cancerous tumour - and Ms Fitzsimmons was told she had a rare aggressive bone cancer called osteosarcoma.
Medics initially planned to shrink the tumour with chemotherapy and then operate to remove it, rebuilding her leg with steel rods.
But instead of shrinking, the tumour began to grow rapidly.
Ms Fitzsimmons said: ‘I could actually see it sticking out of my skin and moving towards my leg and pelvis. I knew it had spread even before the scans.’
She was told full amputation of her right leg and partial amputation of her pelvis was on her only chance of survival.
But medics warned there was a 90 per chance her transplanted kidney would not survive.
Ms Fitzsimmons said: ‘There was no choice. I had to go ahead and hope my kidney would be pull through. It had never let me down before.’
Gracie turned one in April and her mother's amputation went ahead a month later. The operation was a success and she managed to keep her kidney, too.
Ms Fitzsimmons said: ‘I couldn’t look [at my body] for three days but ultimately I was just pleased to be alive for my little girl.
'I vowed having one leg would not stop me being a good mum and teaching exercise classes.’
The amputation was deemed a success and Ms Fitzsimmons returned home six weeks later, delighted she could at last return to being a mother and vowing to return to her exercise class.
She said: ‘I was hopeful I was now cancer free and my sisters Donya and Terell started fundraising for a prosthetic limb.'
But after suffering post-operative pain, she was readmitted for more tests last week.
To her horror, these revealed the devastating news that the cancer had spread to her lungs and was inoperable.
Ms Fitzsimmons said: I feel badly let down. I know first hand how amazing medical care can be in this country - my transplant changed my life.
Ms Fitzsimmons said: 'I feel let down. It was too easy to blame my symptoms on the fact I had started exercise again after having my baby. If I hadn’t recently had my baby the pain would have been properly investigated'
'But I fear that when you've recently had a baby, doctors don’t want to consider that your symptoms might be due to something else.
‘My transplant enabled me to have an amazing life and a beautiful little girl. But, because of the way I was dismissed after having her, I won’t be here to enjoy it.
‘I had all the signs and they should have been investigated.
‘I don’t want this to happen to another family.
'Please, I beg all GPs to just consider the alternatives and not put it down to being postnatal symptom every time a new mother presents with unexplained pain.
‘If I had been diagnosed earlier perhaps my treatment would have been a success and my family would not be going through this now.’
Now, fundraisers are desperately hoping to raise money for Ms Fitzsimmons' daughter.
They hope this will give the her peace of mind that her family will be taken care of.
The money raised for her prosthetic limb will also be held in trust for her little girl.
To donate, visit http://www.gofundme.com/kaleyfitzsimmons
