A mother has described the long and gruelling fight her daughter had after relapsing from blood cancer - and she says she was "tortured with chemicals" during treatment before she died.
Megan Jones, who was 15 when she died, was diagnosed with leukaemia on her 12th birthday.
Megan's mum, Emma Tamplin, 38, said her daughter was complaining about back pain before she was diagnosed with the most common type of blood cancer in children, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) on March 25, 2015.
Wales Online reports an MRI scan revealed no issues during a visit to their GP, but when blood tests were carried out later on at Noah's Ark Children's Hospital in Cardiff, the family was forced to make decisions "of your worst nightmares".
Ms Tamplin said her daughter was "tortured with chemicals" during her lengthy treatment which destroyed healthy and cancerous cells alike.
Her mother said: "Doctors initially thought she had early signs of arthritis of the spine.
"She loved playing football and was a really talented central midfielder for both girls and boys teams. She even represented West Wales. We tried doing physiotherapy and yoga with her, but nothing was easing her pain.
"When she was diagnosed with leukaemia on her 12th birthday it was just surreal. We were just left completely numb by it.
"At first I couldn't deal with it, but after a few days I knew I had to take charge and help her as much as I could."
Things began to look up for the family when she entered remission from the disease in July, 2017.
"She attacked it and attacked it. She did so well," said Emma.
"When she was in remission we had as much fun as possible. She travelled to New York Film Academy to do some photography, and went to loads of concerts and festivals."
HEALTH IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
However, during a family holiday in Majorca with her mum in October 2018, Megan started to get awful headaches.
"We had to phone for a paramedic to take her to hospital," Ms Tamplin said.
"Megan knew something was seriously wrong and asked for a scan to be carried out.
"They found multiple bleeds on her brain, which could have been caused either by meningitis or a relapse from her leukaemia.
"I was in the strange position of praying that she had meningitis - because I knew how awful a relapse of leukaemia could be."
Megan had to have therapy on her brain after tests discovered the childhood leukaemia had spread, but this damaged her nerves and she had to relearn how to walk, open her eyes and eat.
"The third round of chemotherapy completely wiped her out," Emma said.
"We couldn't take her home last Christmas. She had a lot of mouth ulcers and from then on never really recovered.
"Despite how ill she was she did manage to walk again with a support bar last January. That just shows how determined she was."
Megan and Emma spent a six-month period in the Noah's Ark Children's Hospital of Wales where they were supported by charities Latch and Dreams & Wishes.
After a spell in intensive care, the family made the heartbreaking decision to turn off Megan's life support machine when she failed to improve.
She died on February 28 surrounded by her family, including mum Emma, dad Richard and older brother Morgan, 18.
"We were put in a little room in intensive care where we played her favourite music, put up fairy lights and said goodbye properly. It was so intimate," Emma added.
Almost three months on from Megan's death, Emma is now raising awareness of the early warning signs of ALL.
"The hospital staff were amazing, and Megan built up a real rapport with the nurses," Emma added.
"They would laugh and joke together to make the most out of being there. They became our family."
