The mother of a six-year-old who was diagnosed with cancer after her first symptoms were “missed” has urged parents to “trust their instincts” and “ask for a second opinion”.
Kate Hibberd, 42, described her daughter, Meredith, as a “tenacious” and “joyful” child, when in April 2023 she started limping.
She took her to their local GP surgery where a nurse practitioner said she could be experiencing “growing pains in her knee”. Meredith was sent to a physiotherapy session but they could not find a cause of her pain and her symptoms were left undiagnosed.
In June 2023, she started to develop a lump on her forehead which she felt could have been caused by a bump in the night – but Kate noticed it soon started to grow “exponentially”.
Fast-tracked to their local hospital, Meredith received an MRI scan which found cancer was “everywhere”, from her skull and neck to her stomach and leg, until it was diagnosed as non-Hodgkin lymphoma – a “treatable” cancer with an “extremely good” prognosis, Kate said.
Meredith started intensive chemotherapy treatment on what was supposed to be her first week of school – but she is responding well and her mother said she is remaining positive and “playful” despite her situation.
Kate, who lives in Dorset with her husband, Stuart, 43, and her son, Jaxon, 12, has also recently established Meredith’s Mission, a charity in her daughter’s name, with the aim of supporting children, parents and families going through childhood cancer in Dorset.
“Growing pains shouldn’t be taken lightly in children, it shouldn’t be dismissed and overlooked,” Kate told PA Real Life.
“Trust your instinct, you know your child better than anyone else on the planet and if you don’t speak for them, they can’t.
“While I feel like we had a good experience, Meredith’s first symptoms were missed and not picked up so always ask for a second opinion, push for further answers.”
Kate first noticed her daughter starting limping in April 2023 but the mother-of-two said she “didn’t think too much of it”.
“She didn’t complain about it, it didn’t stop her in any way… I thought maybe she just bashed it but I wasn’t overly concerned at the time,” Kate said.
As Meredith’s limp persisted, Kate took her to their local GP surgery.
“I was seen by a nurse practitioner who thought it could be growing pains in her knee and they referred us to a physiotherapist,” Kate said.
“They didn’t know what it was, they couldn’t find anything wrong.”
A few months later in June 2023, Kate said Meredith developed a “swelling on her forehead”.
“She told me she bumped it during the night and I thought sometimes these little bumps take a long time to come down,” she said.
“I thought it was going down for a while – but then it looked like it was actually getting bigger.”
Kate sent a photo of her daughter’s forehead to their local GP surgery who became concerned and called a local hospital, and Meredith was soon fast-tracked to their paediatric unit.
“It was quite shocking because this lump was growing exponentially, her whole forehead was out of shape and this thing was rapid,” Kate said.
An ultrasound was taken on Meredith’s lump in August 2023 where it was discovered she had cancer.
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma symptoms
NHS
The most common symptom of non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a painless swelling in a lymph node, usually in the neck, armpit or groin.
Other symptoms can include:
- night sweats
- unintentional weight loss
- a high temperature (fever)
- feelings of breathlessness
- persistent itching of the skin all over the body
“They didn’t know what kind of cancer it was, all her blood tests were normal and she hadn’t been unwell,” Kate said.
“They scanned her body in an MRI machine and found a massive cancer in her leg, which is why she was limping.”
Kate added the cancer was also present in Meredith’s sinuses, skull, stomach, and the lymph nodes in her neck, saying it was “everywhere”.
“We thought they were going to tell us ‘we’re really sorry but it’s not good news’,” Kate said.
“It was the worst time of our lives, we just didn’t know what to expect.”
Meredith had a biopsy on the tumour in her stomach before several subsequent bone marrow biopsies eventually revealed her diagnosis as non-Hodgkin lymphoma in August 2023.
“They told us this is a very treatable form of cancer with an extremely good prognosis,” she said.
“We just felt like we’d been handed the best card in the whole world which is bizarre, we just felt so lucky.”
Meredith started an intensive course of chemotherapy in the days following her diagnosis in September 2023 which she will finish in January 2026, with Kate saying she is on a similar treatment plan to an adult with the disease.
“She started treatment the week she was supposed to start school,” Kate said.
“She had the Red Devil chemotherapy, I felt sick watching it go in as I knew what it was and it’s going into my four-year-old.”
Despite the challenges, Kate praised her young daughter for the way she has handled her diagnosis and treatment.
“Kids are quite an enigma around this whole cancer thing,” she said.
“They live for the day and they don’t worry about tomorrow or dwell on the day before.
“Meredith’s tenacity, her ability to be playful and joyful would pull Stuart and I out of a hole sometimes.”
Kate has recently established a charity in her daughter’s name, Meredith’s Mission, which is still in the crowdfunding stage, with the aim of supporting children, parents and families going through childhood cancer in Dorset.
“Ultimately, we want to improve children’s experiences who are going through cancer and help to relieve the financial pressure on the parents and families,” Kate said.
“The charity has Meredith’s energy and when we do fundraising things, it will be with her input.”
To find out more, visit the Just Giving page.
