Record
February 19 2014
The
‘The voice of your community’
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Cancer battler faces the future u by Belinda Cullen-Reid
It has been four weeks since Rolleston 10-year-old Ella Benn had most of her left leg amputated to remove a cancerous tumour.
Firefighters battle blaze as temperatures soar P3
Skate Jam drops in
Skateboarders around Selwyn are gearing up for another Summer Skate Jam Series which kicks off in Darfield this month …
P6
Station life in Malvern Hills
In 1866 Frederick Broome of England, along with H.P. Hill, bought the New Zealand sheep run Steventon near Whitecliffs … P8
This weekend she will help to open the Rolleston Relay for Life which marks the lives of cancer survivors and those who lost their battle with the disease. Ella is learning to live a life her and her parents Sandi and Andy Benn would never have imagined just six months ago. “You never think your child’s going to have cancer. If I could swap places with her I would. It’s devastating. You try to keep positive and cheerful,” Sandi says. Ella, a very active young person, who attends Clear view School in Rolleston, first complained about having a sore knee in the second half of last year. At first her parents p Ten-year-old Ella Benn with her mother Sandi at their home in Rolleston. It has been four weeks since Ella had surgery to remove bone cancer in her leg were not concerned, putting the complaints down to her extensive received a cell phone call and were family made the difficult decision to give competitive running schedule and asked to return to the SportsMed clinic. Ella a rotationplasty, where her knee “They said it was a tumour. It was and part of her leg were amputated. growing pains. GP visits and physio sessions failed a bit like someone punching me in Ella’s lower leg and foot were then to correct the problem and the knee kept the stomach. I couldn’t breathe,” reattached to the upper leg in a rotated position so that eventually Ella’s ankle swelling, making it agonising for Ella to Sandi says. The diagnosis was osteosarcoma, an will take the place of the knee. This will train with the Canterbury Cross-country aggressive cancerous bone tumour. The make it easier for a prosthetic leg to team for which she had been chosen. be attached. Sandi says alarm bells began ringing family were in shock. “It’s like you’re Alice in Wonderland. “We did research and decided this following a visit to SportsMed in Lincoln and a referral to a specialist doctor at Everything around you isn’t real. You was best for her style of life, with all the keep thinking you’re going to wake energetic stuff she likes.” SportsMed in Christchurch. They were halfway home from their up,” Sandi explains. Here began Ella’s Christchurch appointment when they rigorous chemotherapy and surgery. The continued on page 4 …
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