Rebekah Bishop is a teenager actively involved in her local 4-H club and the raising of the 550 dairy cows she helps take care of on her family's 525 acre farm near Okeechobee, Florida. A natural athlete involved in everything ranging from soccer, football, running, basketball and swimming to knee boarding, she has long been an active teenager with a true zest for life. So when she first heard that she had Ewing's sarcoma in her right femur, a rare disease in which cancerous cells are found in the bone or soft tissue, Rebekah was scared of the long-term implications it would have on both her physical and emotional well-being.
"When they first tell you what you have, you're truly numb and nervous because you have no idea of what to expect. Although the statistics are better in cases of early diagnosis, there is always the risk that you might lose a leg or that your health will be severely compromised," says Rebekah, "so I really had no idea what to expect going into surgery."
At the time of the diagnosis in 2005, Rebekah was 14 years old and points to the fact that although the period was a generally sad and lonely time for her, she was determined to not let it affect her overall grades at school and had a strong determination to succeed.
"However, despite these obstacles, I benefited from a really positive support network – friends that helped me with my homework, neighbors that would bring dinner to our house on a regular basis and telephone calls from my extended family. I knew that my attitude, spiritual beliefs and medical treatment would be the key to my overall success and recovery," she says.
She was successfully implanted with the Stryker GMRS™ System in her right proximal femur, a solution designed to help patients that require radical bone resection.
"I have had the best that life can give under my circumstances and would like to help people facing similar challenges. I can now dance at my senior prom and may even have children. This experience has taught me to look at life with completely new eyes. So many people take the small things in life for granted, and I have really learned to look at each day with new eyes," says Rebekah.
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