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A mother is mourning the loss of her 17-year-old daughter who died from suspected sepsis just one week after receiving news her cancer was in remission.
Hannah Riddell, from Ashington, Northumberland, had battled Stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma since a diagnosis in August 2024 after she discovered a golf ball-sized lump under her arm.
Hannah had finished school at Ashington Academy Northumberland and had plans to start a travel and tourism course at Newcastle College, but her plans were put on hold after the cancer diagnosis.
She underwent six rounds of chemotherapy before being told, on January 7, that she was in remission.
During chemotherapy she was supported by boyfriend Kieron Stokoe, 18, who was with her “every step of the way” and would often stay up rubbing Hannah’s back and comforting her, mother Jill Mitcheson said.
However, during a routine blood test on January 14, Hannah suffered two seizures before her heart stopped.
Her mother, Jill Mitcheson, said Hannah had been “very pale” in hospital before the blood test and had been vomiting. Her breath then became ragged and she appeared to have a fit.
She complained of extreme pain in her legs to the point her mother “could not lay a finger” on them.
As Hannah had another seizure, the emergency team was called to the ward, and the room was suddenly filled with people.
“Her eyes were rolling back in her head – she was panicking,” Mitcheson said.
“Her breathing was really laboured and she was really struggling.”
Hannah was then taken to the critical care unit and Mitcheson began suspecting her daughter had sepsis.
“At this point, I knew she was ill, but they never said critical and I never for one minute thought we were going to lose her,” Mitcheson said.
“Some time passed, maybe an hour, and nobody said anything, and then a nurse came into the room and shut the door, and she had tears in her eyes. She sat down and she said, ‘I’m sorry Hannah is gone’.
“I was confused because at no point was it mentioned that she had stopped breathing, her heart had stopped, anything. I looked at her in disbelief and I said, ‘what do you mean she’s gone?’.
“She said, ‘I’m sorry. About 55 minutes ago, her heart stopped and she stopped breathing and we’ve been trying to resuscitate her all this time and I’m so sorry but she’s gone’.”
“I said, ‘I need to see her, I need to see her now’.”
Mitcheson and Hannah’s father Michael went into the critical care unit, where they were still doing “brutal” heart compressions on Hannah, but when she held her hand she “knew she was gone”.
Hannah had “so many plans” according to her mother, having had her ovary removed for preservation so that one day, she could have “two or three” children.
Paying tribute to her daughter, Mitcheson said: “She has always been very wise. She was always very chatty, she talked very, very quickly at a very young age.
“She never really changed. She was always like that.
“She was like a second mother to her younger brother. She was so caring.”
The family have raised more than £3,500 via a GoFundMe to assist with funeral expenses and the family are awaiting the results of an inquest to determine why Hannah died.
