A young Scottish sportswoman who launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £10,000 to have her leg amputated has been left “annoyed and disappointed” after her operation was cancelled.
Hope Gordon, from Rogart in Sutherland, suffered a playground injury when she was 12 which triggered complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS).
She has subsequently been in “chronic pain” and, for the last five years, has been desperate for an amputation.
Health chiefs told the 21-year-old she could not have surgery on the NHS, but last month, she was given an operation date of April 29 after raising enough money to have it done privately.
However, she told The Press and Journal that the operation has been postponed due to “reasons outwith her own control.”
The Paralympic hopeful, who competes for Scotland in swimming and rowing, said: “Unfortunately, the operation has been postponed. It’s a bit annoying and a bit disappointing.
“I am hoping they will be able to give me a new date in the next few weeks.”
Miss Gordon added the operation will “definitely still happen” and will be carried out by surgeon Steve Mannion, the founder of the charity Feet First Worldwide.
While Hope is eager to have the procedure done, she has accepted she will not be ready to represent Britain in the Paralympics in Rio, as she had originally wished.
Instead, she has set her sights on swimming for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Australia in 2018.
She vowed to be back in the pool training for the Commonwealth Games, where she aims to compete in the 100m front and back crawl, as soon as her wound heals following the operation.
Miss Gordon had raised £9,060 on a Justgiving page and that amount was bolstered by personal donations.
The youngster, who now lives in Stirling, said previously that she was “absolutely gobsmacked” by all the donations.
She first asked doctors about the operation in 2011 and since then, the pain has steadily worsened and she now has to take 30 pills a day.
The keen sportswoman has described her agony in graphic terms.
She stated: “If you can imagine the barbed wire fencing used in prisons being wrapped around my leg, as it is set on fire, that’s what the pain is like.”