A young woman who had intense rehabilitation after treatment for cancer has spoken about how it inspired her to become a physiotherapist.
Ella Cottle earned a First Class Honours in Physiotherapy from the University of Worcester last year and hopes to use the trauma of her teenage years to make her a better physiotherapist.
“I just love being able to help people and use my experience,” said the 23-year-old. “It gives my being ill a purpose and a reason because I use all of that to be able to help and look after people. I know what it’s like to be a patient and remember all the brilliant things staff did for me. I use that experience and build on that to help patients, and believe I can provide an insight many others might not have.”
In 2011 Ella, who grew up in Aust, near Bristol, was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a tumour on her pelvis and spine, aged just 14. Within days of the scan that turned Ella’s world upside down, she had started 14 continuous cycles of chemotherapy over the course of a year. She also underwent proton beam therapy in the United States. In remission since 2012, she is now embracing her new life working as a physiotherapist at the Royal United Hospital in Bath.
Her interest in the profession came directly from her own experiences. Due to the tumour’s position, many of Ella’s nerves were damaged, particularly affecting her right leg. Because of this Ella had difficulty with her mobility for a year and had intense physiotherapy. Though her right foot and ankle are still affected today, this led to significant improvements. Ella had planned to go into medicine, but an experience working with a physiotherapist around this time, added to the fact that her mother works in the same profession, inspired her to pursue a career in physiotherapy.
“They gave me back my freedom and my independence, and I thought that’s a powerful job,” said the former Marlwood School pupil.
She believes spending much of her childhood in hospital settings does give her an edge and greater insight. “I think I’m that little bit more patient with people, probably because I just know how hard things can be,” she added. “Because of my foot I understand how hard it is to have something go wrong and how hard it is to reteach your brain.”
Ella had planned to do her final placement at Bristol’s Children’s Hospital where she had been treated, but, with that cancelled in the lockdown, she got a placement at the Royal United Hospital and has never looked back.
However, her time at university was not without its challenges. Ella has had a number of scares over the years, where it was feared her cancer might have returned, some of these during her studies. “It doesn’t end, that’s my take home message,” she said. “The tumour is gone, but actually I still deal with this every single day in the sense you are constantly on high alert. It’s still an ongoing battle.
“I always say everything happens for a reason, and Helen, my tutor, it turned out used to work with children with bone tumours; that was her job before. That’s why I ended up at Worcester, as the support she provided me with was better than I’d get anywhere else. Whenever I’d have a wobble I could go to her and talk to her and she’d make everything feel better.”
Ella said her memories made it difficult at times. “It was quite hard in the first year having to learn about cancer,” she said. “We do a communication module about how to talk to people when they’re dying. These things I really struggled with because I could relate to it that bit too much. But all the lecturers were just so amazing and if I needed to take time out they would come and see me and talk to me. I didn’t have to explain anything or justify anything.
“I loved it at Worcester. It was the perfect place for me to learn about physiotherapy. The challenges that come with learning about physiotherapy and how much my life resonates with that, I think the three years would have been much harder if it hadn’t been for my lecturers and my cohort and Worcester generally.”
Ella was thrilled to be awarded a First. “That was the one thing I really wanted,” she said. “Despite all the challenges over the years, and the scares, I still came out with that First and I was really proud of myself. It’s really crazy to think how far I’ve come. You don’t notice it until you look back.”
Ella remains an ambassador for Stand up to Cancer, raising funds for cancer research, and her story recently featured as part of a Channel 4 series of fundraising films.