 A year on from making the life-changing decision to have amputation surgery, Niki Bradley from Milford is, I suppose, about to embark on another surgical journey. And Niki is a teenage survivor of the rare bone disease Ewing's sarcoma and a well-known adventurer and motivational speaker. And she, well, she was faced with having a number of issues with her right hip. This is after her cancer treatment for years. And after coming through the pandemic, she decided to make the tough decision to have what's called rotation plastic surgery. And then in February of last year, she went over to Birmingham to the orthopedic hospital in Birmingham. And there was a portion, what this surgery involves is a portion of a limb being removed, rotated and reattached. It sounds amazing. It sounds almost bizarre in one way. And Niki, that is here in the studio. Niki, how are you? I always love hearing people describe rotation plastic because it really is. It's as complicated as it sounds. And as you say, it's quite bizarre. But when it works, it works very well. Right. It does sound, I hope you don't make me say it, it does sound like something from a science fiction film. As you was thinking, no, that's not possible. But it explained what was done and why it was done. So exactly as you say, the amputation, it's a very rare form of amputation. And on this side of the world, the main reason that it is so rare is simply due to how it looks. So as you say, the limb is removed, rotated 180 degrees and reattached. It's done for a number of reasons. It's usually down to cancer of some sort and the complications that arise as a result of treatment. In my case, I opted for the even more rare, again, version of a rotation plastic. So the main problem with me and always has been since I had radiotherapy in 2004 is the issues with my hip. The rest of my leg was always fine, but my hip caused so many issues, you know, two failed hip replacements, a number of other things that were going on on the right hand side. So when I was introduced to this type of surgery, the purpose of it was to fix the hip. So what they did was remove the prosthetic that was already in there when I had my second hip replacement and actually replaced with my knee. So my knee joint is currently in there and is acting as the hip joint. So they put in your leg from the knee down into where your hip was? Yeah. So they removed the hip and removed part of the thigh and basically, yes, just replaced out that hip prosthetic with my knee after rotating it. So the reason you rotate it is because you want that movement done in a different way. So obviously a knee joint only moves like if people listening, you know, lift their leg up and down, move their knee, you'll see that, you know, it doesn't move side to side, it moves up and down. And that's, you know, I needed the joint to work in a certain way. And it's the same with the ankle. So I still have my foot, it's just brought up. And obviously because the whole leg was rotated, so was my foot. And the main purpose of keeping my foot was to use the ankle as a knee joint. So it's basically the best form of recycling in the whole world. Making the most of what, you know, the rest of my leg that was perfectly functional and always had been and was never able to function properly because of the issues in my hip. So I will say that obviously, you know, you've led into, I will be facing further surgery. So I have decided after living with it for a year, I have decided that unfortunately the function that we were hoping to get from the ankle just hasn't really worked. There hasn't been, because there is a significant leg length difference when I'm sitting down, the two, you know, the ankle and my actual knee on my left side are not side by side. So when you go to bend, they're at different levels. It's extremely hard to explain over over radio. But yeah, like I lived with it for a year and I did as much as I could, like I'm currently sitting here with my prosthetic on and I'm able to do, you know, I'm down to one crutch, I'm able to walk short distances with one, which is something that my surgeon said, do not expect to get off your crutches. You know, don't go into this thinking that will be the goal. And so I listened and I didn't. However, my specialists in Dublin who are the prosthetic specialists said the complete opposite. So they were like, you know what, aim for the stars. And already at home, I don't use my crutch. You know, I do limp, but I'm getting around without either crutches at home. And that's incredible. You know, I've been doing that for a couple of months and I only have the prosthetic for about four and a half months. So the head part worked fine. It was the ankle part that's now down at your knee that that just we're having issues with. Yeah. So to enable the prosthetic to use the ankle to work, it would have required putting hinges either side, which added quite a lot of weight. So prosthetics are, you know, this prosthetic leg weighs quite a bit. And when we tried the first prototype did have the hinges at the ankle. And as soon as I tried it on my specialists are auto buck down in Dublin, as soon as I sat down and tried to draw my leg inwards to, you know, sit in a proper seated position, knees side by side. I instantly knew in that moment that no amount of physio would get what I wanted from this. And what I want is to get back to the top of Ergal and to get back to the top of Mukesh and to do all the things that I love doing. And the reason that I chose, because I did choose to go for this surgery, the reason that I did this was to secure my future and to do to go into surgery of this size, you need a certain level of strength mentally. And you also need to have strong bones everywhere else. So if I had have waited too long, you know, I could have had just with general aging, I could start to have a bit of wear and tear on the other side. And I could have made for complications down the line. So I made that decision while I was still relatively young to secure my future. And now that this hasn't quite gone to plan just with the ankle, it's not the end of the world. It will require basically another form of amputation. But to be honest, that's fine. You know, that's just part of it. So the other form of amputation, it's going to be removing your ankle and attaching and ultimately attaching a prosthetic to that. Yeah. So it won't look hugely different to the one that I'm wearing today. So it'll look like if you imagine just a regular person that has a prosthetic leg, they have, you know, they have it wherever they have it, but when they sit down, they both of the knees, one mechanical, one real, are side by side. So I'll eventually have that. So they'll remove the entire foot, obviously the ankle and a little bit further up my leg to allow for the mechanical knee to then fit side by side. So it's hilarious that I'm speaking about this publicly, and I haven't even told my surgeon yet, but he's going to find out on the seventh. So that's the next appointment. Yeah. So how do you feel about it all now? I mean, it is, it's a setback for sure. Did you feel confident that it would work or was it just, you know, you're willing to take the chance? No, I was confident in the abilities of my surgeon and his way of thinking, but he was very clear with me from the beginning. Before I agreed to this at all, he said, look, there are absolutely no guarantees. And what he meant was there's no guarantees that the hip area will work, but it has worked. It has. For the most part, it's worked. It's a very slow healing process. So the bones in, so essentially my shin is around the opposite of where it should be. They want that bone and all the surrounding bones to knit in with everything else. You know, I'm obviously not a surgeon. I'm trying to explain it just from what he said, but it is a slow process. But I know from the feeling of it, I know that for the most part, you know, the pain is nowhere near what it was a few months ago. So I know there is healing happening. So that side of things is a success and it's an ongoing thing that we will, you know, we will keep an eye on. I suppose you're asking the body to do something that it's just not, it just doesn't understand. Exactly. And actually the biggest, the biggest thing my brain had to navigate was the switch around of where the nerves are. So I experienced severe nerve pain for months after the surgery. And again, I was warned that this would happen because the nerves were firing. They were trying to find their way home essentially. And I would have, you know, very severe feelings of like prickling on my foot and pins and needles, but to a level that obviously everybody has experienced pins and needles at some point, but this is this was a level I actually couldn't tolerate. It was horrendous. And I had to wait that out, you know, I would wake up every morning and just say to myself, keep your head down. That would be the first thing I would say to myself, keep your head down and keep going. This will get better. This is just a process. And that's how I see the, you know, having this next surgery. I knew from when they kept the foot, I actually wanted them to remove it. When we had the, when I had my first surgery, I wanted them, I wanted to bypass this whole past year of trying to deal with the foot and just, just kind of get rid of it. But my surgeon said, let's at least give it a go. And I'm so glad he did. I'm so glad that I've lived with it like this. Because it is day to day having your foot on the other way, even things like lying on the couch, your foot is being pressed into it. So I always have to have a cushion underneath. There's things like that that I always have to think about. How I drive has to, you know, I have to think about absolutely everything. And I actually think that has made me stronger. And it's certainly made me appreciate things that maybe I had not appreciated before the surgery. So definitely not, not a negative. It's just the next step. I think that's why I'm viewing it. And when, when do you, when do you think you have any idea when it'll be sometime this year? Will it? I hope so. I think judging by the way my surgeon works, if I went in on the seventh and said, look, I want it gone, he would fit me in somewhere. Like he's very good like that. And he deals with unusual cases. So he knows that, you know, you're not just put on a waiting list and told to come back in two years. It doesn't work like that, thankfully. But I am thinking about how much downtime was required for the recovery last year. And so I'm, I do want it this year. It's just, you know, do I sacrifice my summer and spend that time recovering? Or do I wait into the winter months when everybody's inside anyway and do it then? It's a little bit of a, I'm working out the logistics. Will this be as big a surgery and as long a recovery time as the first operation? Absolutely not. And I think that's why I'm not as nervous or as apprehensive. This will be this part, there may be further surgery up in the hip area down the line, but for the foot area, this will be just a, you know, a standard amputation. And I, you know, I've obviously never had that exact surgery before, but I imagine that it's just the chop it off and then I heal. I do think it sounds so simple. But you're still recovering them. I mean, the process of recovering from the hip operation is ongoing, given that it's a different limb that's in there now. And then you're going to have this other surgery and there's obviously rehab and recovery from that as well. So you are going to have a lot going on for a while. Yeah. And it's, you know, if I think about it too much, it can feel very daunting, but because I am still very much in it. And I'm, you know, I have the guys just over, just right beside us here, no barriers. I go to them for physio who are excellent. I'm so lucky that we have that facility in Donegal. So that will continue. We'll just kind of adapt things after the surgery. And, you know, my first fitting post op will be four weeks after my first fitting for the prosthetic would be four weeks after I have the ankle amputated. And that's very different to the first operation. It was, you know, there was a couple of months of recovery needed before I was able to visit auto walk for my first fitting. So that's, that just goes to show how, how quickly we can move on after this next surgery, which is great. What keeps you going? What, what gives you the strength when you, when you're going through, you know, when there's been nerve damage and pain and discomfort and lack of sleep and everything else that goes with it? What keeps you going? Is it, if you, if you know that, if you know you're making progress, I'm sure it's not every day and every week that you do make progress, but is it something like that that keeps you? Yeah, definitely. It's, you know, I do keep an eye on the end goal, which is when my, when I'm in a prosthetic that fits me perfectly, that I can go and live the life that I want to lead. Like, I do think about that often, but I don't think about that day to day because that is still a little bit away yet. So what I do is, and I think most people probably do this, I break things down and I set myself smaller goals. And especially when you're recovering, you know, my goals after the first operation were small as try and have a shower by yourself without needing a nurse with you, like stuff like that, that they, they are, it's something taken for granted by so many people. But when you've had huge surgery, been able to actually go from a bed to a bathroom by yourself is like, you'd be exhausted by the time you do that. But then the following week, you notice that you did a little bit more than the week before. And if you keep an eye on those little things, it's, you feel good knowing that you are moving in the right direction. And obviously, there's setbacks with anything. And, you know, as long as I don't let them get to me, then I can move forward and, and maintain a good mindset, I think. Now, it's not like you've been resting on your laurels because you've been out doing some walks and you're even out in the snow. I was this, I absolutely love the snow. It's my favorite type of weather. And I hate the ice because for anybody on crutches, knows ice just it's terrifying, but I love the snow. And I live beside quite like a lot of hills. And so when I saw the snow, I was like, right, and especially in Donegal, you know, you could wake up a snow one day and rain the next. So I thought this could be the only day we have it. So make the most of it. So I did. And I, I use it as an opportunity to practice uphill walking, which with this particular prosthetic is quite a challenge because of how it moves. So yeah, I had a fun day and made the most of it. That first day was spectacular because it was it was cold and the snow was lying on the trees and it was enough off that it just was picture postcard stuff. So you were, you had a busy day that day. It was amazing. And it's that's the thing. Like, I mean, you can spend every day thinking about how severe everything is, or you can look out the window, see a bit of snow. And even though I'm a woman in my 30s, it doesn't matter what age you are, go out and have a bit of fun if you can. It brings out the big childhood. Exactly. And that's just what I thought I did that day and it made a huge difference. So, yeah. Okay. Well, listen, I hope it all goes to plan where whenever you decide or whenever you can get the surgery and the next appointment now is 7th, 7th of this month. Yeah, it's next week. Next week. Okay. And it's actually coincidentally, it's a year that appointment will be a year to the day that I had my surgery. And that wasn't planned. It was just a weird coincidence. So it'll be quite fitting going back to see the man that did all of this. Well, you know, I'm sure you do know this, that you're an inspiration to many. A lot of people who are going through tough times, maybe it's through illness or accidents and they read about your experiences and what you're going through and how you're battling on and how you succeed. And it is inspirational and even for those of us who aren't going through it, it's inspirational. And you also do some talks. You're on the on the circuit, is that right? Yeah. Yeah, I've been doing that for a number of years and I absolutely love it because actually just as you mentioned about people going through a hard time when I deliver a talk and it doesn't matter whether it's corporate or with a charity or whoever. And it doesn't matter how high up these people are. Everybody is going through something. And I think by me sharing my story, it allows other people to share theirs. And that's what often happens at the end of a talk. I'll spend half an hour having quite deep conversations with essentially strangers. And that's the side of my job that I absolutely love because it's not often that people get to do that to be so open. And it's quite therapeutic for everyone involved. So I'm very lucky I get to do that every now and again. Well, a big part of the reason I suppose that you keep challenging yourself when you when you've had all the treatment and then after the operation, you keep on challenging yourself. So so long may that continue. And best luck on the seventh and beyond. And maybe we'll chat the other side. Brilliant. Thanks. Thanks.