I couldn’t get rid of my belly fat but doctors told me it was ‘normal’ and ‘hormonal’… until I was told the devastating truth

When Karen Thrussell looks in the mirror, she sees a body that has betrayed her, and she’s still coming to terms with the fact that she may never be able to trust her body again.

The mother-of-two from Melbourne was diagnosed with liposarcoma, an extremely rare cancer that grows in fat cells, at the age of 48.

The now 55-year-old explained to FEMAIL that the cancer had been growing in her abdomen for 10 years, enveloping her vital organs and making her appear fat.

And she knew nothing.

At first, Karen attributed the 15-pound weight gain she experienced after giving birth to her second child to being a busy working mother.

She blamed the same thing when she started to get tired.

After subsequent failed efforts by doctors and naturopaths to help her lose the weight, Karen followed their advice that it was hormonal and part of the ageing process.

Then the hot sweats began, and she and her doctors thought it was definitely hormonal.

“I did look pregnant at the time but they said it was a sign of menopause because it wasn’t completely smooth and hard – it was soft and lumpy,” she said.

But one day, the marketing instructor began to feel the familiar “downward pressure.”

“It’s the same pushing force you feel as your baby moves down and your body prepares to give birth,” Karen says.

But she wasn’t pregnant; her daughters were 11 and 14, and she said that would have been “impossible” at the time.

“I thought it was an escape or something, because that’s the only thing I could think of.”

Karen immediately went to her doctor, who ordered an internal ultrasound.

“The ultrasound technician couldn’t see anything and neither could the outside technician,” she said.

After a few minutes, she noticed something was wrong: the technician’s expression changed, and other people were coming in and out of the room, talking in hushed tones.

“The doctor said they found something in my kidney but they don’t know what it is,” Karen said.

They said they don’t normally climb that high, but something was clearly up.”

Karen underwent further tests and was given the devastating news that she had cancer.

“I remember at the end of that conversation with the doctor I said, ‘Wait a minute, do I have cancer?'” she said.

She was so shocked she couldn’t process the information.

Karen underwent a series of radiation treatments which helped to “create a pouch” around the liquid tumour.

She then underwent 11-hour surgery to remove her kidney, part of her intestine and a large tumour.

“People keep asking me how I didn’t notice it – it was the size of two babies,” she said.

“But my doctors didn’t know either, so I consulted them.”

Karen is sharing her story in the hopes of raising awareness of sarcoma and other rare cancers, and helping doctors learn about the signs and symptoms so they can help patients.

by Australian New Zealand Sarcoma Association (ANZSA) Rare cancers account for 30 per cent of all cancers diagnosed in Australia.

Long-term survival rates are poor and it accounts for 42% of cancer deaths in Australia.

Karen was diagnosed with cancer in 2017 and still struggles with the fact that her body hid the disease for so long.

And every time she has a scan to check for more tumours, she worries that the cancer may have come back.

“You never really feel confident until you see the results,” Karen says.

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