Emotional tributes have been paid to a 19-year-old who died after her 'sports injury' turned out to be cancer.
Tragic teen Lulu Blundell was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare type of cancer that affects bones or the tissue around bones, at the age of just 15 in 2019.
After eight months of intense chemotherapy and having to go through the agony of her leg amputated, Lulu from Rotherham, South Yorkshire was told she was cancer free.
Her health problems had mostly subsided when she began to feel a pain in her shoulder while studying at university last April, which was initially dismissed as a sporting injury.
Not long after, her consultant arranged a CT scan - after which Lulu received the devastating news that she had new tumours in her shoulder, ribs, and chest, and that her cancer was terminal.
Determined to make the most of whatever time she had left with a memorable summer, Lulu visited Magaluf with four friends, Amsterdam with her boyfriend Paddy, and enjoyed family trips to London, Northumberland and Manchester.
A special day then followed in September when she crossed the finish line at Run with Lulu, a charity 5k she organised with her family and rugby club in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust.
It's a moment now immortalised in a new film shared by the charity named 'Lulu: Forever 19', which shares her inspiring words and reflections on living with cancer and a terminal diagnosis read out by her mother Carolyn.
Lulu ran the event on her prosthetic with a broken shoulder blade, as the tumour had become so large, and raised over £21k to support other young people with cancer.
Tragically, just weeks after event a scan showed that Lulu’s cancer had spread more quickly than expected, and that she had only months left to live - not years, as hoped.
In October and November, Lulu was still able to get out of bed and do one thing a day she wanted, but by by December she was too unwell to leave her house.
After defying expectations to live to Christmas, the 19-year-old sadly passed away on New Year's Day this year while surrounded by her family and loved ones.
Reflecting on her daughter's final weeks, mum Carolyn Blundell told Yorkshire Live: “When you realise that you have so little time with someone you become really present in the moment. Right through last summer, and especially after we found out the cancer had spread, we basked in every little thing we did together.
"You can’t manufacture that situation and there were moments of spectacularly pure beauty and love. Even memories of watching Love Island with Lulu, her brother Seth and Paddy are really precious.
“But nothing could have prepared us for those last few weeks. We didn’t think she’d make it to Christmas, but she wanted to show Robin, her oncology consultant, that she’d get to 2023, and she made it to New Year’s Day.”
She added that there was a "lot more to Lulu than her cancer", and that she had a lust for life, for people, and a spontaneity that was infectious - if she wanted to do something, she did it.
Carolyn also revealed that specialists had recommended that further chemo could "buy her a little bit more time" - but said this wasn't what her daughter wanted, as she didn't feel like spending "any of the time that she had left in a hospital bed".
Paying tribute to everyone who helped Lulu live out her final weeks as she had hoped, she said: “Danielle, her Teenage Cancer Trust Nurse, and NHS staff working at the charity’s units in Newcastle and Sheffield, went above and beyond to make sure she could do the things she wanted in the time she had left– like go to Glastonbury.
"Things that might seem simple but take a lot of planning when somebody is very unwell.
“She went to the festival with her friends on a ton of pain relief – it was all arranged so that she could store and take it in the first aid tent. Had she become really unwell she wouldn’t have had to go to A&E, a named contact at the local hospital had been briefed about her whole history and was on hand if needed.”
Lulu's inspirational film has been shared by Teenage Cancer Trust as part of the #talkaboutdying campaign, which aims to help young people talk openly about receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis.
Dr Louise Soanes, Chief Nurse, Teenage Cancer Trust, 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.
“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.”
