A woman who says cancer treatment ‘destroyed her body’ faced a second battle after defeating the disease – having to lose weight or facing never being able to walk again. Danielle King, 43, was diagnosed with sarcoma in 2014 when her little girl was just three.
At the time she lived life to the full, loved her job in fashion and exercised regularly. Work involved a lot of travel and it was after a challenging trip that she realised something was wrong. “I was on a flight to China and six hours into the flight it had to turn around and go back to the original airport in Amsterdam,” she said. “I was on a flight for 12 hours, then six hours later back on another 12 hour flight. When I finally landed in China over 36 hours later my left leg had swollen up badly.
“Over the week it finally went back down again so I wasn’t too worried, but coming home the same happened again. This time it was painful and red.”
Danielle, from Merseyside, went to the GP as soon as she got home, who thought she might have DVT but blood tests came back negative. She was sent for an ultrasound and it was then that medics discovered a mass on her groin. “When they told me it was sarcoma I thought my life was over,” she said. “That sounds dramatic but I had a beautiful three year old and I’d been told I had a rare form of cancer and they were unsure of the next steps to take.
“After numerous panic attacks I was put with the most incredible oncologist who looked after me like a daughter. I honestly think if it wasn’t for him and his team at Aintree Hospital I wouldn’t be here today. Danielle underwent long and gruelling treatment. She started radiotherapy in December and then had surgery to remove the sarcoma in April.
“When they finally did the surgery it was connected to my femoral vein and artery, my bladder and touching my bowel,” she said. “It was unfortunately also on my fallopian tube and ovary on my left side so these had to be removed with a part of my vein and artery.
“The funny thing is looking back at pictures of that time I was actually the healthiest I’d been for years. I knew I had to fight this thing and the only way I could help it was to feed my body the best quality, unprocessed foods. I have always had a full on job with long hours and flying all over the world so my family was always the priority, then work, and then me.
“But because I was off work and focused on myself I really tried eating whole foods and things that were good for inflammation. I was researching lots of recipes and trying hard to be in the best physical shape for major surgery.”
The first operation affected Danielle’s mobility and left her with chronic lymphedema while a second surgery some months later left her struggling to walk. She had a year off work and went back to a desk job. But after only a short time she knew she had to go back to her fashion career as she missed it so much.
“This is when everything with my weight started to spiral again. I was working long hours again, my mobility was really bad so I wasn’t getting my steps in so the weight gradually piled on again,” she said. “I was still loving to cook but instead of the healthy meals I was making before I was making indulgent meals on a regular basis.
“Mix that with the lymphedema and the mobility and I just felt like I had no idea how to look after myself again.”
Then came the Covid pandemic. During lockdown Danielle realised her partner was cheating on her. She moved out of the home where she’d lived for 15 years – and it was then that the weight really piled on. “I was still working at my old company, flying everywhere, driving up and down the country, plus running a house by myself and trying to manage the lymphedema,” she says.
“I was eating M&S convenience food and takeaways, sometimes having three a week just because I was so tired.” By November 2023 her leg was very swollen and red. Her weight made it even harder to move and she was in a lot of pain.
She had delayed physical therapy as it meant three weeks off work with a hospital appointment every day to manage the lymphedema. But in January 2024, she finally began. Danielle describes it as “the best decision she ever made”.
“One night one of the veins burst in my leg which was so traumatic. I thought ‘enough is enough now, this has to stop’,” she explains. “So, that week I handed my notice in at work and decided the priority was going to be on my health.”
She joined weight loss platform Juniper after seeing ads on Instagram, feeling it was her last chance to manage her health effectively. At the time, she was almost 19 stone.
“I still can’t believe I made this decision as financially I was reliant on this job and wasn’t sure how I would pay my bills,” the creative director explains. “But I knew that if it carried on I was putting myself in an early grave. “I quickly got freelance work and things started to turn around. I started to eat healthily again and stopped all the take-aways.
“I was scared of taking medication to lose weight, as I really try not to take any meds even now for anything else. But as my hormones were all over the place and my mobility was restricted and slow, I thought I had no other option and if I carried on ‘yoyo-dieting’ the way I was I’d be dead anyway!”
Danielle has lost around 3.5st with another 2st to go – and has also seen a significant reduction in lymphedema. But she admits that she was initially concerned about taking the weight loss drug she was prescribed through the programme.
“It was in the fridge for days until I stumbled on the Diary Of A CEO podcast about Ozempic with Johann Hari and this is when I plucked up the courage to take it,” she says. “I wrote a list of pros and cons like he did on the podcast and I just realised for myself, my leg and my daughter, I had to do this.
“My leg is doing so well, I’m moving more and I’m waking up feeling fresh, not exhausted and in pain anymore. Hearing my vascular team’s comments when they saw me in November 2024 was just magic.
“They were so shocked by the difference in my leg between the 12 month appointments.” Danielle admits she still has blips but always gets back on track.
“I have made this promise to myself, to my family and all the doctors that have invested so much time and effort into me that I will be the healthiest version of myself I can be. But I will also enjoy my life at the same time.”