A mother has paid tribute to her teenage daughter who died of cancer on New Year's Day after she appeared to have beaten the disease previously.
Lulu Blundell from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare type of cancer, when she was 15 years old in 2019.
This type of cancer affects bones and the tissue around them, and Lulu went in for eight months of chemotherapy between June 2019 and February 2020.
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She also had her leg amputated as part of her treatment, and by September 2021 she was out of treatment and studying at university.
However, in April 2022 she felt a pain in her shoulder and went to A&E to find out what it was, and was told there should be nothing to worry about.
For a few weeks she thought it might have been a sports injury, but when she went in for a CT scan she was told that she had cancer again and had tumours in her shoulder, ribs and chest.
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Lulu was also told that this cancer would be terminal, and that she had somewhere between five and 10 years left to live.
Not wanting to go back into chemotherapy, the teen instead wanted to have as many memorable moments as possible, going on holidays to Magaluf and Amsterdam, as well as making trips to London and Manchester.
She also set up a 5k run in September to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust, but in that same month she received the news that the cancer had spread significantly and she had a matter of months rather than years.
Lulu's mum Carolyn paid tribute to her daughter as 'feisty, opinionated and fierce', a girl with a 'real lust for life, for people, and a spontaneity that was infectious'.
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She also praised the work done by Teenage Cancer Trust to help the family through this most tragic of times, and is raising money to help them further which you can donate to here.
The chief nurse of the Teenage Cancer Trust, Dr Louise Soanes, also paid tribute to Lulu and her family for everything they had done to raise funding and awareness to help people in similar situations.
She said: "We are so thankful to Lulu and her family for their fundraising and sharing their story, which will help so many other young people with cancer.
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"No parent wants to ever imagine having to help their child come to terms with a terminal diagnosis, plan where they’d prefer to die, or their funeral, but these are the difficult conversations that are needed to be had every day across the UK for many young people with cancer and their loved ones.
"We are proud that our incredible nurses and youth support teams work every day to support young people and their loved ones in this situation, because talking about dying is important, and no wishes or worries any young person has towards the end of their life have should go unspoken."
Joe Harker