When Kelly Mullooly started experiencing knee pain in December 2024, the 19-year-old college freshman didn’t know it would change the trajectory of her life.
Mullooly thought it could have been from overtraining as a member of the University of New Haven cheer team, working out too much or just overusing her legs.
“I couldn’t really pinpoint when it started happening,” she said.
During winter break, Mullooly returned home from college to Massapequa Park and went to get her knee checked out. She said doctors didn’t seem concerned at first and told her to do physical therapy.
After the pain continued, Mullooly had her knee checked out again during spring break.
Doctors did an MRI during that appointment and then notified Mullooly that they found a tumor. Doctors confirmed that the tumor was osteosarcoma – a rare and aggressive cancer of the bone.
“I was given the plan the same day I was diagnosed,” she said. “It was very comforting knowing that they knew how to treat this.”
At the same time, Mullooly called the diagnosis upsetting, saying that she had been working with her cheer team to prepare for a national competition in April, which she did not get to participate in.
In April, Mullooly started chemotherapy with Carolyn Fein Levy, a pediatric oncologist and head of the pediatric oncology rare tumor and sarcoma program at Cohen Children’s Medical Center.
Then in June she underwent limb salvage surgery with Howard Goodman, an orthopedic surgeon and chief of musculoskeletal oncology at Northwell Health Orthopaedic Institute.
“It’s a very rare type of cancer, but the most common bone cancer that we see,” Goodman said.
Goodman removed the bone tumor, including about five inches of her lower femur, and replaced it with metal and a very special prosthesis with a knee replacement at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
After the successful surgery, Mullooly continues to receive chemotherapy treatment. She said she is roughly halfway through it.
Along the way, her family set up a GoFundMe page to help with medical costs. Mullooly’s page has raised over $64,000, including a $10,000 anonymous donation that a grateful Mullooly said she was shocked to see.
“It was overwhelmingly amazing to have so much support, especially right before my surgery, because I was very nervous about that,” she said.
Mullooly said she will soon be able to walk with crutches and then be able to begin walking on her leg in September. She will take online classes in the fall and said she is excited to return to campus come springtime.
Mullooly said she has been supported by her sorority and fellow cheerleaders at New Haven.
Doctors will follow Mullooly’s condition for the rest of her life, including making sure that her cancer doesn’t come back.
