Emma Wassell: ‘Rugby family’ nursed star through tumour surgery

Scotland rugby internationalist Emma Wassell has told how her “family” of teammates cared for her through tumour surgery months after her mother died.

The 29-year-old spent nearly two weeks in hospital after the mass was discovered last month, ruling her out of the current WXV 2 tournament.

She told BBC Scotland News that in her mother’s absence, her “rugby family” devised a rota to help care for her – which included brushing her hair, feeding her and ensuring she was never alone.

“They allowed me not to ever feel in a dark place,” she said. “I don’t know how I would have got through it without them.”

Initially the Loughbrough Lightning lock – who still faces further surgery to completely remove the tumour – thought she was simply feeling under the weather when her neck became sore at the end of a training camp at Heriot Watt University.

An appointment with a physiotherapist did not reveal any obvious cause of pain.

The discomfort continued despite the Aberdeen native taking her doctor’s advice to drink fizzy juice and see if it dislodged any food stuck in her throat.

Wassell then went to A&E in Edinburgh, and while in the waiting room her neck began swelling. Following CT scans, doctors found the tumour in her chest.

She was later told the swelling was the result of a bleed in the tumour.

The tumour was found to be benign, but Wassell recalled how she first worried about cancer after hearing the diagnosis.

“You go to the worst-case scenario,” she said. “I think what scared me the most is where it was and what it was impacting.

“It was in my chest, it was my neck – it was when there’s a concern around your breathing, I think that’s what’s so scary.

“This was the Friday night and on that Wednesday, I played a live game of rugby in training, 15 on 15. I felt good. And just two days later, I was in a bed. I could barely stand up myself.”

Wassell’s teammates – who she describes as her best friends – rallied around her immediately when they found out she was in hospital alone.

Former Scotland captain Lisa Thomson told her by text “I’m sending Rhona” – referring to Rhona Lloyd, who had 25 caps for Scotland by age 23.

She said: “I got given a lot of painkillers, obviously, just to manage the pain at that time. And Rhona was there keeping me company.

“Initially, I was quite ill because there was a bleed into the tumour. That bleed was spontaneous, that as far as we’re led to believe wasn’t triggered by exercise or rugby, it was spontaneous, and that’s what caused the swell up.

“Once that all kind of calmed down, I then just had to recover from the surgery.”

A steady stream of care-giving players continued to visit Wassell in the 13 days she spent in hospital – during which she had emergency surgery.

The procedure ran into complications after an initial attempt through Emma’s neck could not remove enough of the tumour to be successful.

That led to another attempt through her rib. She woke up and was told her lung had collapsed.

The presence of her teammates, she says, was particularly important, given her mother Pauline had died in the spring after suddenly contracting pneumonia.

And though her friends may not be blood relatives, she said they made her feel as though she had the “biggest family in the world”.

She said: “You’re lying in your hospital bed, and I suppose you typically think about having your family around you, and yeah, I would have loved having my mum there with me.

“But also, I think having your family is really difficult, because it’s very difficult for family to see your daughter look and be that vulnerable.

“As soon as people found out, in terms of my teammates, found out about where I was, it was how they could get there, what they could do to help. There was a rota arranged to make sure I was never alone.”

Wassell still faces further surgery to, hopefully, finally remove the full tumour.

But in spite of her dramatic health battle, she remains an optimist.

She is determined to play rugby again and add to the 67 Scottish caps she has collected during a 10-year international career.

She even has one eye on the 2025 World Cup.

“This month I’m due to get the tumour cut out,” she said. “That is a full sternotomy. So it’s a pretty, pretty big op.

“The biggest concern that I had was ‘am I ever going to be able to play rugby again?’

“In the scale of life, not being able to play rugby again is not the end of the world.

“It’s a long journey ahead, I’m sure. But something wonderful is that sport gives you this.

“You absolutely love a challenge, and this is just another one.”