A ‘BEAUTIFUL' teen passed away from cancer after being fobbed off for two years – with doctors putting down her symptoms to glandular fever and UTIs.
Megan Kelly grappled recurrent infections and crippling fatigue before being diagnosed with stage 4 in 2019.
She passed away a year later, aged just 19.
The first signs of Megan's deadly cancer appeared in September 2017, when she was 16.
The teen was struck down with a for three weeks and she couldn't seem to shake it off.
“This was followed by virus after virus, along with constant ,” her mum Jane wrote in a blog posted to The Institute of Cancer Research.
“She missed so much school due to ill that by Easter 2018, she was asked to leave.”
Megan was in and out of the GP, walk-in clinic and A&E, with doctors putting down her symptoms to , and urinary tract infections (UTIs).
All the while, Jane became increasingly concerned that something was seriously wrong with her daughter's health, as her daughter was increasingly sapped of energy and unwell more often than not.
“I had fought my own battle with when I was 32,” she shared.
“It had taken a year before I was correctly diagnosed, and I recognised much of my own experiences in what Megan was going through.
“But the rational side of me wanted to believe the doctors each time we were told she just had a virus.
“It was much harder to think that my teenage daughter could have cancer, and it was certainly not something I wanted to hear.”
In 2019, Megan was battling yet another infection, this time hypothermia.
Jane wrote: “I remember saying to the doctor at clinic that something needed to be done, that I feared there was something seriously wrong.
“But she just rolled her eyes and told me that parents could sometimes be neurotic when it came to their children.”
After spending the entirety of a family holiday indoors and asleep, Megan went to see her GP again – this time alone as she was 18.
The doctor examined Megan's stomach and suspected it may be cancer when she felt a mass on her kidney.
After a raft of scans and biopsies, which took another few weeks, the teen was eventually diagnosed with stage 4 soft cell Ewing sarcoma, “which had probably been there for two years”, according to Jane, and “had already spread to her lungs and lymph nodes”.
“She was told she would never be able to have children and that she only had a 30 per cent chance of surviving more than five years,” the distraught mum wrote.
“The worst thing for me was knowing that she would have to go through chemo.
“Having been through it myself years before, I knew how brutal it could be.
“Megan was feisty, strong, resilient and solution-focused.
“She listened to her diagnosis, had a cry, then stopped and said: ‘So what are we going to do about it?’. She never felt sorry for herself.”
Remarkable resilience
Megan began a “brutal” nine-month regime a few days after her diagnosis, which she “put everything into” despite it leaving her poorly, weak, and unable to walk or eat.
She also underwent surgery in February 2020 to remove her left kidney and the tumour on it.
“It was an extremely frightening time for all of us,” Jane wrote.
“In my heart, I think I knew at this point that Megan was not going to make it, but my husband still had a lot of hope.”
My daughter had an incredible life ahead of her. She was articulate, beautiful, kind and funny – and I often wonder where she would be right now
Jane Kelly
In June 2020, Megan was told she was in remission and she grew hopeful as her grew back and she was able to walk again.
But she started being sick again in August and a scan made the family's worst nightmare a reality: the 19-year-old's cancer was back and there was nothing more doctors could do for her.
Megan was told she had a year to live but she “did not even break a sweat”.
“Despite promising myself that I would never cry in front of her, I broke down,” Jane recalled.
“But she just turned to me and said: ‘You know what, mum, I’m fine. I’ve been thinking about this moment a lot and I am at peace with it. I am ready’.”
Megan passed away on December 9, 2020.
Megan's legacy
Megan was passionate about raising awareness around childhood cancer in a bid to improve diagnosis rates and help others dealing with the disease.
During the months that she was in remission, she talked about doing a skydive to raise funds and wanted to organise a rave in the of 2021.
These events both went ahead, despite Megan not being here and raised £26,000.
To honour her memory, her family set up the Megan’s Rose of Hope in January 2022 which has raised thousands in support of young cancer patients.
They recently donated £22,000 to The Institute of Cancer Research.
“We wanted to fund research that was specifically directed at cancers that affect young people, and we know Megan would have wanted the we raised to make a difference,” Jane said.
“Research into childhood cancer is underfunded compared to adults, because relatively few children are diagnosed with cancer compared to the adult population.
“We need to develop kinder, better treatments for children with cancer to be able to save more lives.
“My daughter had an incredible life ahead of her. She was articulate, beautiful, kind and funny – and I often wonder where she would be right now.
“I can only hope that she would be incredibly proud of what we are doing in her name.”
