A-Level student becomes one of youngest people in UK ever to die from bowel cancer aged just 18

An eighteen-year-old A-Level student has become one of youngest people in the UK ever to die from bowel cancer. 

Charlotte Simpson from Hampshire fought a short four-month battle after she was diagnosed with stage four cancer in January this year. 

In April, she was told she had just weeks to live and she passed away on May 22.

Her mother Sarah, 46, a former civil servant, revealed her ‘world fell apart’ when it was confirmed her daughter’s cancer had spread and her diagnosis was terminal.  

Before her diagnosis, Charlotte was a ‘very happy young woman’ who was in her second year of A-levels and was in love with another student Scott Dickinson, 19.

Charlotte Simpson (pictured at Halloween in 2018) from Hampshire fought a short four-month battle after she was diagnosed with stage four cancer in January this year

She had hoped to carry on her studies at university and wanted to study a degree in primary teaching at the University of Winchester. 

The teenager lived at home in Whiteley, Hampshire with her mother, Sarah, and father David, 48, a carpet company director and her younger brother Elliott, 15.

Her mother, Sarah, told The Mirror that when she was first diagnosed with cancer, Charlotte didn’t lose hope. 

‘Charlotte’s whole attitude from the start was amazing,’ she said. ‘She [Charlotte] said, “It’s going to be ok”. 

Charlotte first complained of extreme stomach pain in October last year, but blood tests only detected anaemia and the teen was given iron tablets. 

Months later, she was still not feeling better and was losing weight and felt fatigued.

In mid-December the teen found blood in her stools – a common symptom of bowel cancer.

Charlotte first complained of extreme stomach pain in October last year, but blood tests only detected anaemia and the teen was given iron tablets. Pictured at her surprise slumber party

However, the cancer was still not discovered until Charlotte underwent a colonoscopy in Southampton General Hospital in January following two trips to hospital over Christmas where she was ‘in agony’. 

When doctors told her that it was likely she had cancer, Charlotte replied: Don’t be silly, I’m only 17.’

According to charity Bowel Cancer UK, Charlotte is one of just three teens her age, 15 to 19-year-olds, to be diagnosed annually with the disease on average.

Bowel cancer usually affects age groups of over-50s but the charity says there has been a rise in the number of young people affected by the disease. 

The cancer was still not discovered until Charlotte underwent a colonoscopy in Southampton General Hospital in January following two trips to hospital over Christmas where she was ‘in agony’. Pictured on her first day of chemotherapy

Charlotte started chemotherapy and immunotherapy in early February but a month later, a scan found that the cancer had spread to her stomach and lymph nodes.

She was given just weeks to live in April but with visitors restricted to only one person in the hospital during the coronavirus lockdown, her parents made the decision to move her home.   

Two weeks later, Charlotte died peacefully in her home on May 22 at 10.50am.

In an obituary posted online, Charlotte was described as ‘a beautiful and kind soul’ who made everyone she met ‘feel so very special and so loved’.

Following her death, her mother said she is determined to raise awareness of teenage bowel cancer, saying: ‘I don’t want to see other families grieving like us.’