A teenager died just one week after being told she was in remission from cancer. Hannah Riddell, 17, found a golf ball-sized lump under her arm in August 2024.
She was rushed to hospital and medics diagnosed her with stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma – a type of cancer that affects the lymphatic system. The teenager underwent six rounds of chemotherapy before she received the news she was in remission, reports Birmingham Live.
Her delighted family began planning a trip to Mallorca to celebrate. However, they were left distraught when Hannah’s health began to deteriorate and she died seven days later from suspected sepsis.
Her mum Jill Mitcheson said: “Her dad and I were holding her hand and I knew she was gone. It was just surreal, like it was not really happening and she was going to wake up – it happened so quickly, there was no warning.
“It was just the cruellest thing ever. Her whole life had been on hold. It was just the most devastating thing that could possibly happen.”
Hannah initially noticed a problem when the family returned from a meal with friends on August 10 last year. Jill, who is a carer, said: “We were sitting in the garden because it was a nice sunny evening and she came down from her bedroom into the garden and said “mum I need to tell you something”.
“My heart dropped and I thought, teenage girl, she better not be bloody pregnant. So I came into the kitchen and she said “mum, I’ve got a lump under my arm” and when we looked at the lump it was the same as the size of a golf ball. It appeared very quickly.”
The following morning, a hospital doctor examined Hannah and she had an ultrasound, followed by a biopsy. Jill, 44, said: “When they were sat in the ultrasound I saw them start to measure all the lumps – there were quite a lot of them – and I think it was at that moment I knew there was something not right about this.”
The family were informed Hannah had Hodgkin’s lymphoma and a second scan revealed it was at stage 4B – meaning the cancer had spread to various organs, including her neck, through her torso and groin.
Jill, from Ashington, Northumberland said: “Hannah took the news better than anybody else. She just got on with it – she never wanted any pity.”
Hannah finished school at Ashington Academy Northumberland and planned to start a travel and tourism course at Newcastle College. But her plans were halted following her cancer diagnosis.
Hannah began the first of six rounds of chemotherapy at the Royal Victoria Infirmary on August 21. During her chemotherapy rounds she had several infections and at one stage was ‘vomiting the entire time’.
Her boyfriend Kieron Stokoe, 18, was with her ‘every step of the way’ and often rubbed her back to comfort her. On January 7, the family were overjoyed when they were told Hannah was in remission.
However, when she returned to hospital for a routine blood test, just one week later, she was ‘very pale’ and had been vomiting. Hannah’s breathing became ragged and she appeared to have a fit before complaining about extreme leg pain.
The pain was so extreme that her mum ‘could not lay a finger’. Hannah then had another seizure and the emergency team was called to the ward.
Jill said: “Her eyes were rolling back in her head – she was panicking. Her breathing was really laboured and she was really struggling.” Hannah was then taken to the critical care unit.
Jill added: “At this point, I knew she was ill, but they never said critical and I never for one minute thought we were going to lose her. Some time passed, maybe an hour, and nobody said anything, and then a nurse came into the room and shut the door, and she had tears in her eyes.
“She sat down and she said “I’m sorry Hannah is gone”. I was confused because at no point was it mentioned that she had stopped breathing, her heart had stopped, anything. I looked at her in disbelief and I said “what do you mean she’s gone?”.
“She said “I’m sorry. About 55 minutes ago, her heart stopped and she stopped breathing and we’ve been trying to resuscitate her all this time and I’m so sorry but she’s gone”. I said “I need to see her, I need to see her now”.”
Jill and Michael, Hannah’s dad, rushed to the critical care unit where medics where still doing ‘brutal’ heart compressions on Hannah. But Jill said she ‘knew she was gone’.
Paying tribute to her daughter, Jill said: “She has always been older than her age. She has always been very wise. She was always very chatty, she talked very, very quickly at a very young age.
“She never really changed. She was always like that. She was like a second mother to her younger brother. She was so caring.”
The family has since launched a GoFundMe campaign to ensure Hannah has a ‘good funeral’ and to ‘let her know what a fantastic person she was and just how many people loved her’.
At the time of writing, more than £4,600 has been raised. The family is currently waiting for the results of an inquest to determine why Hannah died.
Jill said: “It’s massively helped not just financially but just keeping us going, knowing how many people care for us as a family, for Hannah. Even in how cruel this whole situation is, it just gives me some kind of comfort from the fact that so many people cared and are willing to help and it really has eased this whole situation.”