Fat belly? no, I just had a 39lb tumour

6:00pm Thursday 27th October 2011

• Print
• Email
• Comments(2)

A grandmother has dropped seven dress sizes after Oxford surgeons removed one of the biggest tumours they had ever witnessed – a 39lb ovarian cyst.

the benign lump, weighing the equivalent of 17 bags of sugar, caused Jayne Grainger to swell to a dress size 24, giving her the appearance of a heavily pregnant woman.

After surgery at the Churchill Hospital, mrs Grainger shrank to a svelte size 10 and now has a new lust for life.

now the grandma, who had ignored her condition through fear and a phobia of doctors and hospitals, is about to embark on a major fundraiser to help the surgeons who treated her and inveitably saved her life.

Widow mrs Grainger first realised something was wrong when her stomach started to swell for apparently no reason.

But she said: “I was in complete denial. at that point I had no pain and no symptoms, just a tummy that was getting bigger.”

it continued to grow until a few months later her son Tim, 45 and daughter Jorgie, 37, noticed and tried to convince her to seek medical help.

But mrs Grainger said a phobia of doctors and hospitals meant she could not face it.

she said: “I couldn’t bear to look at myself in the mirror.

“Although I had this enormous stomach and swollen legs, there was no flesh on my arms or the torso.

“I used to put the rubbish out after dark and kept my car parked really close to my front door, so I could get in without anyone seeing me properly.

“My legs started to swell up too, so it looked as though I had elephantitis.

“The weight of the bump meant the pressure on my legs was unbearable.

“By the end, I could barely walk and couldn’t get down the stairs in my house.”

After working up the courage to see her doctor, mrs Grainger, whose husband Alan died from pancreatic cancer seven years ago, was referred from the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, near to where she lives, to the Oxford Cancer Centre at the Churchill Hospital.

she was operated on within days and the cyst, which turned out not to be cancerous, was removed.

now mrs Grainger, who is in her 60s, is preparing to take part in Sunday’s It’s Not just A Walk In the Park, at University Parks, to raise cash for Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust.

she said: “I have never felt so good – I am on a natural high because I have faced my greatest fear. the other day, I was up a ladder cutting branches off a tree and a neighbour said they wished they had my energy and looked as slim.”

Mr Roberto Tozzi was the surgeon who operated on mrs Grainger He said: “We managed to get the whole thing out without rupturing it, which was good.

“It had grown very slowly over time but she had just become accustomed to it.

“From the size of it, it was actually a relatively easy operation.

“It was one of the largest we’ve ever had in Oxford. it was a very peculiar case.”

It’s Not just A Walk In the Park starts at 10.30am on Sunday October 30. For more information and to register, visit orhcharitablefunds.nhs.uk