Girl, 17, 'dies one week after being told she was cancer free'

Hannah Riddell
-Credit:Collect/PA Real Life


A teenager died just a week after being told she was in remission from cancer. Hannah Riddell, 17, discovered a golf ball-sized lump under her arm in August 2024.

She was rushed to hospital, with medics diagnosing 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 was told she was in remission.

Her family started planning a trip to Mallorca to celebrate. But they were left heartbroken when Hannah took a turn for the worse and died just seven days later from suspected sepsis.

READ MORE: Prince Andrew 'faces new Royal Lodge humiliation over impossible problem'

Don't miss the biggest and breaking stories by signing up to the BirminghamLive newsletter here.

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.

ADVERTISEMENT

"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 first noticed there was a problem when the family returned from a meal with friends on the night of 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 next 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 told it was Hodgkin’s lymphoma and a second scan revealed it was at stage 4B – meaning the cancer had spread to various organs. The cancer was found throughout her neck, right through her torso and to her groin.

ADVERTISEMENT

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 managed to finish school at Ashington Academy Northumberland and planned to start a travel and tourism course at Newcastle College. But her plans were put on hold after the cancer diagnosis.

On August 21, Hannah began the first of six rounds of chemotherapy at Royal Victoria Infirmary. She had several infections during her chemotherapy rounds and at one stage was 'vomiting the entire time'.

Her boyfriend Kieron Stokoe, 18, was with her 'every step of the way' and would rub Hannah’s back while comforting her. On January 7, the family were delighted when they were told that Hannah was in remission.

But when she returned to the hospital for a routine blood test on January 14, she was 'very pale' and had been vomiting. Her breathing became ragged and she appeared to have a fit before complaining about extreme pain in her legs.

ADVERTISEMENT

The pain was so bad her mum 'could not lay a finger'. Hannah had another seizure, with 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"."

ADVERTISEMENT

Jill and Hannah's dad Michael went into the critical care unit, where medics were 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 give Hannah a 'good funeral' and to 'let her know what a fantastic person she was and just how many people loved her'.

More than £3,500 has been raised. The family is awaiting 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."