Teen who visited dentist with swollen jaw given devastating diagnosis hours later
A girl who had her teenage years "taken away" from her after being diagnosed with leukaemia has said being told she is cancer-free just before Christmas is the "best present she could have asked for".
Frankie-Ella Lloyd, from Essex, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in September 2021, when she was 15. On Thursday, the 17-year-old rang the bell at Broomfield Hospital for her final chemotherapy treatment, which she described as "the best day of (her) life.
Her symptoms included swelling on the right side of her jaw, "purple, red, and black" dots on her legs, dizziness, and extreme fatigue. However, when her 42-year-old mother Victoria Macdonald took Frankie-Ella to see the GP, they were sent home with antibiotics and told she was a "lazy teenager".
Her symptoms persisted, to the point where she was passing out regularly and "screaming in agony" but felt "no-one was listening to her". The jaw swelling prompted a trip to the dentist, where they were told she needed to go to hospital – and just hours later after blood tests, Frankie-Ella was diagnosed with ALL.
She said: "In the morning, I woke up to seven specialist nurses around us all, and that’s when they told us. The first thing I asked was ‘am I going to die?’ And my nurses said ‘we can’t tell you yes, we can’t tell you no’, and at that point, I ran out the hospital and broke down.”
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Despite the difficult news, Frankie-Ella said she knew she had to “fight” the cancer and commenced chemotherapy straightaway, which caused her to lose all her hair and stop attending school. Speaking about ringing the bell for her final treatment, she said: "I honestly can’t even describe it – I’ve never felt anything like that. It was the best day of my life. I just felt blessed to even stand there and ring that bell, it was so emotional."
Despite the difficult news, Frankie-Ella said she knew she had to “fight” the cancer and commenced chemotherapy straightaway, which caused her to lose all her hair and stop attending school.
Frankie-Ella said the staff she met inspired her to pursue a career in nursingWalesLive reported that when Frankie-Ella noticed the swelling in her jaw and the clustering of coloured dots – tiny spots of bleeding under the skin known as petechiae – on her legs, she said it was “scary”. Despite her symptoms being dismissed by her GP initially, she “knew there was something wrong” and she was determined to find a cause.
“I just felt like no-one was listening to me, and the only person that actually did listen was my mum,” Frankie-Ella said. "Every time I went to the doctors, they just didn’t believe me – until I went to the hospital.”
Frankie-Ella was diagnosed with ALL at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex, on September 23 2021, before being transferred to University College Hospital in London. The then 15-year-old had not even heard of leukaemia and asked whether doctors can “cut it out”, before being told it was a type of blood cancer and she would need chemotherapy.
She said: "When I first got diagnosed, this boy at school sent a picture round of me when I went bald, and it went in group chats and that broke my heart – I didn’t ask for this,” she said. “I feel like my whole appearance – me mentally and physically – I just feel like everything got taken away and I’ve turned into a completely different person now."
Despite this, Frankie-Ella knew she had to “fight” – and she said listening to music, including songs by Adele and Ed Sheeran, helped her through her treatment. While the chemotherapy was gruelling, for each day she survived Frankie-Ella said she felt “blessed” – especially as she had seen some of her friends with leukaemia pass away.
She started posting videos on her TikTok account to educate others and share updates on her journey in 2022, and on December 1 she was told she was cancer-free. Frankie-Ella said there were points where she “didn’t think (she) was going to be here” so this was a huge milestone for her.
Although she will have to continue taking medication for the foreseeable, she rang the bell for her final chemotherapy treatment on December 21. She had memorised the words on the bell beforehand in anticipation of the momentous day. She said: "The wording is, ‘Ring this bell, three times well, its toll to clearly say, my treatment’s done, this course is run, and I am on my way."
The hospital staff who "saved her life" inspired Frankie-Ella to pursue a career in nursing – and she is hoping to start studying at Chelmsford College in the new year. She said: "My mum said to me ‘what do you want for Christmas?’ And I just said ‘Mum, I don’t want anything for Christmas, I just want me to ring the bell and it all to be finished’.”
Victoria added: “As a parent, when your child gets diagnosed with cancer, your whole world just turns upside down. It was very fast, the treatment is harsh, but I can see a light at the end of the tunnel now; the amount of times I’ve been in the corridors crying. The Christmas is second, her ringing the bell is my Christmas present – I couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas present."
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