A teenager who went to the doctors complaining of back pain died just three weeks later after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. Carl Scott, 19, was told by professionals that the condition had spread to 'every part of his body', with the exception of his brain.
Now his heartbroken mum, Claire Abraham, has paid a touching tribute to her 'loving and caring boy' following her first Christmas without him.
The 19-year-old, from North Shields, had asked medics for help after discovering a lump on his back that was causing him pain, Chronicle Live reported. Tests revealed he had a rare form of sarcoma called Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma. - a soft tissue cancer that had spread across his body.
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Just three weeks after being diagnosed, he passed away at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle surrounded by his devastated family.
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's still feels like a daze, it doesn't seem real. The last few months have been really hard."
Carl grew up with his mam 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 was living in Whitley Bay when he started to suffer from back pain last summer. She said he looked thin and had developed a lump in the middle of his back.
She said the pain led to him visiting his local doctors surgery followed by Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in August last year. The hospital, in Cramlington, Northumberland, transferred him to the Freeman Hospital for more tests.
Claire said doctors initially thought that Carl had testicular cancer, before later diagnosing him with sarcoma. She said the hospital had to get a specialist doctor in to treat him due to how rare the cancer was.
Angela said a doctor explained to them that Carl was seriously ill and not going to get better as the cancer had spread to every part of his body apart from his brain.
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 bas it was. Claire was absolutely devastated."
Carl, who had planned to study bricklaying at Tyne Metropolitan College in Wallsend, sadly never came out of hospital. He was told that the cancer was terminal and he has just weeks left to live. He passed away at the hospital on September 4 last year.
Claire said: "He has 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.
"It's been really hard without him. Christmas was the hardest because Carl normally stopped at my house on Christmas Eve. His best friend would usually come around on Christmas morning and I would get a picture of them. Carter always talks about Carl and says 'He's in the sky' and 'Carl's in heaven'."
Just hours before Carl passed away, he was visited in hospital by North Shields musician Shakeil Luciano, known as Schak.
The 30-year-old said a friend from school told him about Carl, who was a fan of his music, being terminally ill. He said he sent her a voice message to play for him and visited him in hospital.
He said: "I'll never forget the day I met this amazing young man. It was so difficult to see Carl, who was only 19, so sick. His family told me that within three weeks he went from a normal person to his current state.
"As he was a fan of Nanna Makina I got changed and put my outfit on and I stood beside Carl's bed. Carl could barley talk but he managed to muster the strength up to ask his mother Claire if we could get a photograph together. After we posed for the photo I held his hand for a little while before shortly saying goodbye to him.
"I was informed by his family that he passed a few hours after I left. It’s so tragic to see such a young man’s life come to an end when it was only just beginning. He will forever live in my heart, rest well son."
Following Carl's death, members of the local community raised more than £5,000 for his family and his funeral. He was cremated following a service at Preston Cemetery in North Shields on September 22 last year.
According to the NHS, soft tissue sarcomas can develop in almost any part of the body, including the legs, arms and tummy (abdomen). They often have no obvious symptoms in the early stages and can cause symptoms as they get bigger or spread.
The symptoms depend on where the cancer develops. The NHS urges anyone with a lump, particularly one that gets bigger over time, to see their GP.
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