Kaitlyn Hurlstone experienced overgrown gums, fatigue, leg pain and vomiting before her diagnosis at 16
A Staffordshire mother is hoping to raise £150,000 for an alternative treatment for her daughter after doctors informed the family there was “nothing more they could do” following her acute myeloid leukaemia diagnosis at 16.
Kaitlyn Hurlstone, now 18, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, initially contracted tonsillitis in April 2024 which developed into “very strange” overgrown gums that “detached” themselves.
Her mother, Angharad Hurlstone, 38, took her to the dentist in late May, but she said they were not “sure what it was” so she was sent home with no answers.
The situation escalated when Kaitlyn started experiencing persistent vomiting, leg pain and fatigue, leading to a GP visit where doctors ordered a blood test on June 21.
Within hours, Kaitlyn was told to go for an emergency assessment in hospital, confirming the acute myeloid leukaemia diagnosis just four hours after the test.
Since then, Kaitlyn has undergone four rounds of chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant and brain surgery to reduce sudden swelling.
In June 2026, Kaitlyn’s cancer spread to her spinal fluid and caused further severe damage and swelling, leaving her blind and unresponsive in a life-threatening condition for a week.
After suddenly “turning a corner”, Angharad said her daughter is now in “uncharted waters”, so the family is raising money to try to get Kaitlyn on either a £9,000-a-month “breakthrough drug” or a £150,000 stem cell transplant because she claimed the “NHS won’t fund another one”.
On what it was like to be warned to say goodbye to her daughter in June 2026, Angharad said: “It was probably the worst day of my entire life.
“(Kaitlyn) was unresponsive… and then it was like she just completely turned a corner.
“And then she was laughing and joking with her friends.
“It was truly like a miracle had happened.”
Kaitlyn said: “I didn’t know people said their goodbyes.
Angharad said it all started when her daughter got tonsillitis in April 2024 and she “never really came back from it”.
Within a month, Kaitlyn said her symptoms progressed to overgrown gums, where both her top and bottom sets of gums grew over her teeth and then it “detached” so it was “flapping down” inside her mouth.
After a dentist could not work out why it was happening, Kaitlyn said she started experiencing other symptoms including fatigue, pale lips, vomiting, and leg pain when she was trying to play volleyball and “run on sand” at school.
Kaitlyn said: “The whole month of May, I was doing my GCSEs, but I was throwing up in the mornings.
“So we went to the doctors and they recommended I get a blood test.
“Exactly a week after my last exam on June 14, I got a blood test and a few hours later they called us straight into the hospital.”
At this point, the mother and daughter still thought Kaitlyn’s symptoms could just be anaemia, but when they walked through the hospital and realised the referral was in the cancer centre, Angharad said it immediately became “quite daunting”.
Kaitlyn added: “I tried to blank it out because we thought it was just an out-of-hours thing.”
By the time the two arrived at hospital at 8pm on June 21 2024, about four hours after having the urgent blood test, Kaitlyn was told she had acute myeloid leukaemia.