Teen's death inspires mum's drive for earlier rare cancer diagnosis

Liberty York was 19 when she died from a rare form of cancer, two days after her birthday.

A year after her death, her mother Hannah York has talked about her strength and the parts of her daughter that existed outside of her illness.

"The first thing that comes to mind when I think about Liberty is how kind she was and thoughtful," she said.

To Hannah, she was still the same determined teenager throughout the final year of her life, before she died from an angiosarcoma, a rare form of soft tissue sarcoma, a type of cancer which starts in areas of the body such as muscle and fat.

The first signs appeared in May 2024 when Liberty, from Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, began feeling unusually tired and nauseous.

A year earlier she had been diagnosed with Addison's disease, a rare autoimmune condition, so at first the family thought it was possible the two could be linked.

Liberty was referred to see a specialist but while the family waited for answers, she developed swelling and pain in her left breast.

"We went to see the GP about the swelling and she thought it was mastitis because it was red as well and painful.," Hannah said.

"The [cancer's] main symptom is the swelling or change in skin. Liberty's swelling kept getting bigger and bigger."

Antibiotics were prescribed but they failed to work and doctors initially thought she had an abscess.

Later, Hannah said, attention turned towards the possibility that hormones could be responsible.

"Liberty was on a teenage cancer ward and they said it was very common," she said.

"So many teenagers, it's put down to hormones and unfortunately they said they see it every day."

The swelling that had begun as a small area of concern just weeks earlier had become a tumour weighing 10lb (4.5kg) by the time surgery took place.