25 Sep 2024

“Life will never be the same” – Megan’s story

Megan Cremin died in September 2023, just five days after being diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of leukaemia. She passed away so quickly she never had the chance to benefit from treatment. The 29-year-old midwife from Braintree in Essex had started to experience symptoms a couple of months beforehand but attempts to get a diagnosis failed until her condition suddenly deteriorated. Since her death, her grieving friends and family have put their efforts into fundraising for Leukaemia UK. They are backing earlier diagnosis and more effective treatments in the hopes that one day families won’t have to experience the same loss as they have. 

Bruises appeared on Megan’s skin.

“Megan seemed to develop bruising all over her body in the space of a day,” said IT manager Mitch Groves, 34, Megan’s partner of 3.5 years. “We had just moved into our first home together in Braintree in May 2023, and were excited to be planning our future. Megan was the sort of person who was always tired anyway – we used to joke about it. She had a really busy job, so I didn’t think anything about the fatigue. But then she started feeling sick and visibly lost weight which was a worry. In late July 2023, she sent me some WhatsApp’s of this bruising which started one morning then just got worse and worse. She made a doctor’s appointment, and they sent her for a blood test. This showed a high level of iron in her blood but was otherwise inconclusive. She went back and had more blood tests in the weeks after. We never got the final results as, by the time they came back, she had been hospitalised.” 

Megan’s dad Mark said: “At the beginning of September, Megan came home with Mitch for her birthday. We visited a local wildlife park to see her favourite elephants. She had volunteered for a three-week placement working as a midwife in Zambia and was thrilled to be able to see elephants in the wild when she was there. During dinner, I noticed a large bruise on Megan’s leg and so I asked her about it. My question was quickly rebuffed with the reply that she was having tests. She clearly didn’t want to discuss it, so I left it at that.” 

Now suffering from constant sickness, fatigue and covered in bruises, on 18th September Megan visited A&E in Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford. By this time, she had lost a stone in weight. She was told to return home and wait for the results of the most recent blood test which were due on 26th September as there was nothing they could do in the meantime. But then she took a turn for worse and on 25th September, she returned to A&E

Megan with her boyfriend Mitch.

“They gave her anti-sickness medication as she couldn’t hold anything down,” said Mitch. “Then after a couple of hours we got whisked into a separate room, yet more bloods were taken, and we were then moved to a ward where a doctor broke the news that they thought she had leukaemia. I remember it so vividly – she said ‘I know they’re going to drop the C bomb on me’. Because she was medically trained she already knew.

“I was devastated and scared of what was to come. But I knew I had to give Megan as much strength and support as it would take to help her with the treatment and be with her every step of the way.”

Megan was immediately given a blood transfusion and platelets and the couple were told she would be transferred in the following day to St Barts Hospital in London, where parents Mark and Karla would meet them once they had driven up from their home on the Kent coast. 

“Later that day they confirmed Megan had Acute Promyelocytic Leukaemia (APML/APL),” said Mitch. “It was a terrible shock. Specialists at the hospital said it was only the second time they’d seen someone with APML that young.”

APML is a rare and highly aggressive form of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) characterized by an excess of immature blood-forming cells (promyelocytes) in both the blood and bone marrow. This overabundance results in a deficiency of healthy white and red blood cells as well as platelets in the body. APML presents approximately 10% of all cases of AML and can be diagnosed at any age although the median age at diagnosis is 51 years. Only 170 people are newly diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukaemia each year in the UK.

“I left her there, hooked up to everything under the sun, on Tuesday evening. At about 3am she messaged me to say she was going to St Barts at 7.30am on the Wednesday. But that was the last time I spoke to her as immediately after that she had a stroke.”

“On the Tuesday, we had several video calls with Megan and discussed coming straight up to see her in Broomfield Hospital,” said Megan’s father Mark. “During our final call, Megan said she was waiting to transfer to St Barts as soon as a bed became available so we decided that we should wait until the next morning and drive there instead of Broomfield. Megan said she was feeling ill and so had to go. We said love you, see you tomorrow. That was the last time we ever spoke to our daughter.”

Mitch was called at 7.15am by the hospital. When he got there, he discovered that Megan had been put into an induced coma. She was transferred to the specialist neurology centre at Queens Hospital in Romford for emergency surgery to relieve the pressure from bleeding on her brain. Megan’s parents arrived along with her brothers and other family and friends. 

“The surgery was as successful as could be hoped and we all saw her come down the hall afterwards on life support,” said Mitch. “It was explained to us that they were unsure if or what brain damage she would have sustained. I remember more people arriving and having to tell everyone. I went into survival mode I think – in a way like a robot. 

“Throughout the next couple of days they started preparing us for the worst as by now it was clear she wasn’t responding to anything or waking up as expected.

“On that last morning, the Saturday, there were 36 people coming in and out to see her and talking to her, as I know a person’s hearing can still be present even when they’re unconscious. I would meet them outside the door to prepare them for what they would see and tell them she was just with the best people and having the best dreams.”

“We had previously discussed end of life care with the doctors and decided that on the Saturday, once all family and friends had said their goodbyes, I would give the nursing staff the instruction to turn off her life support,” said Mark. “This was the hardest thing I have ever had to face, and as the visitors came and went, and the time grew close, I broke down in the corridor, unable to face the inevitable. But Megan’s final act of kindness was to come to my rescue – her body gave up the fight of its own accord so I didn’t have to take the decision, and we held her hands as she passed away peacefully.”

Tragically around Saturday lunchtime Megan then went into organ failure. She died on the 30th of September just five days after being diagnosed with APML. 

“The mixture of the brain surgery and the leukaemia was just too much for her body,” said Mitch. “She passed away peacefully and afterwards we gave permission for her medical information to be used as APML is so rare in someone of her age. She would have wanted that as she worked in medicine.”

Megan’s funeral service in November saw around 200 people gather in the church in her home village of Lympne, in Kent before she was cremated. 

Megan in her work uniform; she loved to help other people.

“As a parent, to be told that your child has been diagnosed with leukaemia is difficult enough, but to lose them just a few days later has been truly devastating,” said Mark. “We were so proud of Megan. She loved to experience new things and do things her own was. She did Sea Cadets, and was a keen footballer, swimmer and hockey and netball player. She chose her own secondary school – not the one her friends were going to but the one she thought would give her the best education.

Helping others was a fundamental part of her character and, despite dropping the baby Jesus in her school nativity play, she was brilliant at her job and loved it! She packed so much into her 29 years and leaves the world a better place for all the laughter, happiness, and memories she created. Life will never be the same without her.”

“Megan’s passing has affected everyone she ever knew,” said Mitch. “Due to the speed everything happened it has taken a long time for everyone to process it. She was so young, with so much planned for her future. 

“Before all this happened, I’d been looking at doing the London Landmarks half marathon to give me something to aim for with my running. During the week when we were in hospital, I said to Megan’s sister-in-law I’m going to do the half marathon for leukaemia now, do you want to join? She agreed, and soon we had a group of 11 of Megan’s friends and family on board. Between us we raised £13,200 for Leukaemia UK, and another £7,600 from one friend who ran for Blood Cancer UK. Some had never run before, we all went to the pub afterwards and it was an amazing day.

“Although we cannot change what happened to Megan we can support Leukaemia UK. We know that money is used for research and help for any people suffering with leukaemia in the future. We will continue to run the race each year in Megan’s memory and hope to raise more money. 

“I took two weeks off work initially then went back as a distraction really. I feel like I’m slowly getting there. The trauma took a toll on my physical health as well as mentally, and I get ill a lot still. Some days are alright some days aren’t. But I’m trying to focus on spreading awareness so people know the symptoms and are diagnosed earlier, as I don’t want anyone else to go through what we did.”

Megan spread happiness to so many others in her personal and professional life.

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