Jillian Williams enjoys a busy life – working, chasing two goldendoodles around at home and planning her trip to Tokyo for the Paralympic games. However, the US sitting volleyball team isn't the only team that Jillian is on. She also works with diverse healthcare teams, impacting patients every day as a Mako Product Specialist at Stryker.

An unexpected diagnosis

Jillian’s journey started while playing college volleyball. She began to feel pain in her left knee. 'I thought it was my meniscus and I self-diagnosed myself the entire season'. Eventually, Jillian got an MRI and learned what the real issue was: Ewing's sarcoma – a type of bone cancer – along with a fracture. All this during the week of her 19th birthday.

Jillian’s doctor, Valerae Lewis, M.D. at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, provided a few treatment options. Jillian chose the one that gave her the best chance of playing sports, which are her passion and motivation. It was called rotationplasty. Rotationplasty is an amputation in which the femur and the knee are removed, making room for the bottom half of the leg to rotate 180 degrees and be reattached with the foot facing backwards. This solution would allow Jillian’s ankle to function as a knee. 'It prevents phantom pains', Jillian says. To address the fracture, a plate and screws were used to stabilise the femur.
 

Practising her passion

After surgery, as Jillian faced long hours of physical therapy and cancer treatments, she started thinking about how she could be active again. She thought about taking up a new sport like skeet shooting, but her mind kept going back to volleyball. As such, she decided to teach herself how to play sitting volleyball. 'I started practising by myself, and as I became stronger, I decided to record a video and send it to the US national sitting volleyball team'. To Jillian’s surprise, she was asked to join the programme and start training with the team after completing her treatments.

Around the time Jillian received the offer to join the Paralympic team, she also graduated from university. She interviewed for a job at Stryker, promising to give 100% as a working athlete. 'The hiring manager was completely supportive', Jillian says.

Routinely, Jillian sits and empathises with patients who are scared, comforting them before major surgery. 'It makes me feel fulfilled', she says. Every day, Stryker’s values are lived through Jillian – including accountability for patients and a determination for better outcomes.