A family have shared how they spent a heartbreaking first Christmas without their son after he passed away only weeks after going to the GP with back pain.
19-year-old Carl Scott was described as a "loving and caring" young man, after he tragically died in hospital just a short time after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
Spreading to "every part of his body", Carl's mum, Claire Abraham, shared how her son had discovered a painful lump on his back, before seeking medical attention.
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Running a series of tests, Carl was found to have rare form of sarcoma called Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, which is a soft tissue cancer. He died just three weeks after his diagnosis, Chronicle Live reported.
Claire, 37, said: "Carl went into hospital for back problems so to be told that he had cancer was a big shock. He was really upset, he didn't have time to process it really. It was breaking his heart.
"Everything happened so fast and I didn't have time to register anything. It still feels like a daze, it doesn't seem real. The last few months have been really hard."
Carl grew up with his mum Claire, his younger brother Cory, 16, Claire's partner Angela Henderson, 41, and her three children Tracey, 21, Bailey, eight, and Carter, three.
Claire said: "He was quite a character, he used to have you laughing all the time. He was also loving and caring. He was an outdoor kid. He always wanted to be out and about with his friends. He was always outdoors playing with his best friend Dean."
Claire said Carl started to suffer from back pain last summer. She said he looked thin and had developed a lump in the middle of his back. Doctors initially thought that Carl had testicular cancer, before later diagnosing him with sarcoma.
She said: "Everything was such a blur and we didn't have time to take much in. I have never ever heard of sarcoma before. I came home and Googled it and realised how bad it was. Claire was absolutely devastated."
Carl passed away at the hospital on September 4 last year. Claire added: "He had quite a few friends going to the hospital and the nurses at the Freeman were amazing. I wanted to be there with him so I slept at the hospital. I held his hand and he passed away."
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