Football saved girl’s life after harm led to discovery of one thing sinister

A student says “football saved my life” after it was discovered she had thyroid cancer after suffering a serious injury on the pitch.

Leyla Ozturk, 21, went in for a high tackle during a game for her team, Skelton Ladies, in September last year, when she landed badly on her neck. After her hand turned blue the following day, she raced to A&E and had a CT scan where she learned her neck was fine – but she had a 3cm tumour on the right side of her thyroid.

Leyla said: “The doctors told me my neck was fine – my numbness was probably down to tissue and nerve damage which would heal easily. But they said they had found something they were concerned about – they could see a large lump on my thyroid.

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“I was referred urgently and eventually told it was cancer and I would need surgery to remove it. It was a rollercoaster of emotions.”

Leyla, who is studying politics and international relations at St John’s University in York, has been playing football since she was five and said she would likely never have known about the tumour had it not been for her injury.

She said: “Looking back at photos of myself before I knew about the tumour, my neck did look strange and I remember thinking that at the time but I would never have done anything about it.

“I was so grateful to learn that it hasn’t spread to my lymph nodes – who knows whether it might have done if it hadn’t been caught.”

Leyla, who lives with her mum and step-dad in Skelton, Cleveland when she’s not studying, started playing for Skeleton Ladies last season after spending her younger years in various youth teams.

A former goalie, Leyla has recently started playing centre back, a position she says she much prefers, and her team were playing against York Railway Institute before she suffered the injury.

The Middlesborough FC fan said: “We were getting towards the end of the game and it was getting very scrappy.

“I jumped up for the ball when it was in the air and the opposition player nudged me and I fell back on my neck.

“I knew it was a bad one as soon as I hit the ground – I was in pain everywhere.”

Despite an ambulance being called and an air ambulance rushing to the scene, it was decided Leyla was well enough to go home after the match.

However, the next morning Leyla’s hand turned blue and she went straight to A&E with her mum.

She said: “They did a CT scan and I was prepared for the worst – maybe a broken neck or something. But when they said they’d found a lump, it was a total shock.”

Leyla underwent an immediate biopsy to determine if it was cancer which came back inconclusive.

The doctors then suggested a partial thyroidectomy so they could see what the lump was.

Leyla said: “I had my surgery in December last year and got my results back this January and was told it was thyroid cancer.

“I then had a second surgery to take the rest out in March which was successful.”

Leyla now takes Thyroxin – a drug which mimics the regulation of hormones that her thyroid used to do and she will undertake radioiodine therapy in August aimed to target and destroy any thyroid tissue left in her body.

Leyla is now cancer free but she admits being diagnosed at such a young age has taken its toll on her mental health.

She said: “I have been very stressed. You think you’re invincible when you’re young and then something like this comes round and you realise you’re not.

“It means cancer is always on your mind and it can be quite difficult to deal with the anxiety around that.

“The nurses at MacMillan cancer have been great helping me get through all of that. And playing football is a brilliant way to let all the anxiety out.”

After her surgeries, Leyla was back out on the pitch within weeks.

She said: “I live and breathe football. It seems perfect that football was the thing that literally saved my life. I’m so, so grateful for it.”

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