'Chances to spot my son's bone cancer were missed'

A mum whose teenage son died after being diagnosed with bone cancer has called for more awareness of the disease's symptoms.

Kieran Maxwell, from Heighington, Darlington, was told he had Ewing sarcoma in 2010 and had his left leg amputated before his death, aged 18, in 2017.

His mother, Nicola Maxwell, said it took 14 months for Kieran to be sent for an X-ray after first seeing a doctor about pains.

More than 150 youngsters in the UK are diagnosed with bone cancer each year, according to The Children & Young People's Cancer Association (CCLG), but fewer than 50 of those patients survive for 10 or more years.

Ms Maxwell said: "Bone cancer was never even mentioned by doctors as a possibility because it's so rare in young people.

"The guidelines said you had to have persistent bone pain and see a doctor three times to be sent for an X-ray, but Kieran's pain was intermittent and he had no other symptoms.

"He wasn't losing weight and he was still active. They put it down to growing pains.

"I believe it could have been caught earlier. Chances were missed."

The amputation of Kieran's left leg in 2011 appeared to have been successful in treating the disease and, using a prosthetic leg, the following year he took part in the Olympic Torch relay ahead the games being staged in London.

Stumbling to the ground as he carried it through Bishop Auckland, he carried on after being helped up.

Then, in 2013, doctors found cancer had spread to Kieran's lungs and in 2016 to his heart.

It was, Ms Maxwell says, a blow that seemingly "came out of nowhere" as he had achieved several personal bests in sporting competitions just a couple of months earlier.

He set up the Kieran Maxwell Legacy charity in the hope of funding a researcher to look into the illness.

Ms Maxwell added: "It is very difficult to treat relapsed bone cancers and survival is very poor. Early diagnosis has a positive impact on survival and the chance of recurrence drops quite significantly.

"I often wonder, if Kieran had been diagnosed earlier, would we have had the chance to save his leg and his life":[]}