ALARM BELLS
Newlyweds unable to romp on wedding night after bride’s ‘gym injury’ EXPLODED in her groin leaving her hours from death
The agony forced her to skip the first dance
WHAT started as a ‘gym injury’ for Sarah Wintrip turned into a life-threatening ordeal when she should have been celebrating just getting married.
Sarah, who is in hospital, has yet to consummate her marriage to Luke Wintrip, 36, after an infected cyst exploded in her groin.
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The mum-of-three began experiencing groin pain that was sharp and uncomfortable during the flight to Jamaica for her wedding.
The 38-year-old said: "I knew something was up but I didn't want to say anything because I'm not one to complain about pain and I didn't want to ruin the day.
"It was two years' worth of planning and I had all my best friends with me."
Sarah, from Chelmsford, Essex, was reassured by her friends that the pain was probably gym-related.
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“It felt like I'd been in the gym and I'd been doing lunges and I'd lunged a little bit too hard," the marketing chief executive said.
When a personal trainer friend asked if she'd been working out, Sarah laughed it off.
“I haven't stepped inside a gym for seven months; it’s definitely not that," she recalled saying.
But as the wedding day approached, the discomfort grew worse.
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On May 17, the morning of the ceremony, Sarah stood up quickly and felt a sudden, intense pull.
“Everything went and I thought I was going to faint," Sarah explained.
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Her friends thought she was just hungover from the night before, but the mum knew this wasn't the case.
Despite the escalating pain, Sarah kept quiet to protect the celebrations.
"I just wanted to have a good time," she said.
The agony, however, forced her to step back from her own wedding.
“We didn’t do a first dance because I was in pain but I didn’t want anybody to know," she explained.
That night, she noticed a visible lump on her leg, hot to the touch.
“I was waking up in the middle of the night in huge amounts of pain. I was having fever dreams and was delirious," Sarah explained.
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Sarah knew something "really bad" was happening, but she refused to go to hospital while away.
"In my head I was thinking 'I just need to get on that flight and get back to England'," she explained.
"I knew that if I went into a Jamaican hospital I'd die in a Jamaican hospital.
"I wanted to see my children again."
By the time the newlyweds flew home on May 20, Sarah was in crisis. She was in "excruciating" pain as they landed.
"One of my friends by pure luck had antibiotics," she said.
"I was two hours from death and if she hadn't given me those antibiotics, I would've died."
Paramedics rushed her straight to hospital as soon as she landed.
Scans revealed a massive four-by-two centimetre cyst inside an abscess in her groin.
A cyst is a fluid-filled sac. An abscess is a swollen area that contains pus, usually created by a bacterial infection.
A cyst can develop within an abscess if it is not properly treated. The body may create a protective capsule around the infected area which can lead to a cyst-like structure.
"I think there was an abscess, and a cyst had grown in the abscess and it had a casing around it," says Sarah.
"It started to go bad and the air pressure had made it explode.
“It was a life-saving surgery. They had to get out the source of the infection that was killing me and it was leaking into my blood.
"[The cyst] was huge and it was deep. It wasn't visible on the top until that day of the wedding it was deep inside."
Doctors had to cut her open and leave the wound packed and open to drain and heal slowly, to prevent the infection from returning.
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'I don’t want to die without seeing my children'
Waking up from surgery, Sarah was overwhelmed by pain and fear.
“I remember waking up in really bad pain and thinking ‘I’m dying.’
"The infection was spreading through me, I could feel my lungs weren’t working and I was losing my eyesight.
"I had no feeling in my hands or my feet.”
Her surgeon told her he had never seen anything like it before.
The wound’s location is tricky - prone to hernias, where tissue pushes through muscle - making recovery slow.
“If I get reinfected, I don’t want to die without seeing my children," she added.
"I still haven’t seen them since I got back because I haven’t been well enough and I didn’t want to scare them.”
Sarah said she would have "never expected" this to happen on her wedding day.
"We've still not consummated the wedding. We've really tested the wedding vows in sickness and health," she added.
What is a cyst?
SKIN cysts are round lumps, often filled with fluid or pus.
They commonly appear on the face, neck, back, or torso but can develop anywhere on the body.
Symptoms:
- A smooth, round lump under the skin
- Usually painless but can become red, swollen, or sore if infected
- Sometimes the cyst can leak fluid or pus
When can cysts be dangerous?
Most cysts are harmless.
But if a cyst forms deep inside the body and becomes infected or ruptures, it can cause serious complications like sepsis, which can be life-threatening without urgent treatment.
When to see a GP
- If the cyst grows quickly or becomes painful
- If it shows signs of infection, like redness, swelling, or discharge
- If it affects movement or causes discomfort
Most cysts don’t need treatment and may disappear on their own. If necessary, a doctor can drain or remove the cyst with minor surgery.
Source: NHS + Cleveland Clinic
'A jolt to reality'
Sarah urges others to 'go with their gut' and get checked out if they suspect something is wrong.
"It's been very tearful," she said. "You get married thinking 'I've got years and years to spend my life with you'.
"When something like that happens it's a jolt to reality.
"Go with your gut because my gut the whole time was saying 'go back to England'.
"Knowing now how rare it is and how difficult it was to figure out I was right, I would've died in Jamaica.
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"Do not delay. I had no choice because I had to go back to England.
"But if there's something up and there's something you're worried about, just get it looked at, don't sit on it. You know your own body."
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