Hassan’s story: Hassan’s sister shares his story in his memory after he sadly died at 20 after being diagnosed with leukaemia

Hassan was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) at 19 years old. He had been studying radiography at university and was in his second year when he first started to feel unwell. After several trips to the doctors, an MRI later found he had a 14cm tumour and he needed to start treatment right away.

Hassan went on to have chemotherapy treatment at University College London Hospital (UCLH), but after several rounds the doctors said it wasn’t working. After eight months of treatment, Hassan sadly died in February 2024.

His sister Sadia has shared his experience in his memory.

“Hassan loved a load of things, he loved playing football I think that was his main hobby to do, every Sunday he would go with his friends to this charity organisation called Football.net and play football with them. Hassan also enjoyed watching football, everything was revolved around football and family.

“Whilst doing all of this, religion played a big part in his life – we’re muslim and him and my dad they would go to family gatherings and praise our Phrophet.”

Hassan first started to feel unwell after going to visit his favourite team, Luton Town FC, play at Wembley.

“Luton Town scored a goal and he screamed his lungs out. He came home with this really bad barking cough. When that cough started it was also the hayfever season he had swollen eyes and cough so we thought it was just normal because everyone was getting it.”

Hassan was prescribed antibiotics and steroids three times but each time it would come back again. One day Hassan’s parents found him in his room quite blue so they took him to the hospital where he had a blood test and was once again given steroids and sent home.

“It was two days before his birthday, he couldn’t breathe, his fingertips were going blue, they were purple – I had to put my foot down and say ‘I can’t take antibiotics and steroids for him anymore’.

“We went to the hospital and they did scans and checks. I pushed and asked for an MRI scan to be done. They did the MRI and we were sent home then that same evening about 8pm Hassan got a phone call from the hospital to say you need to come in urgently, we need to start some treatment.”

Hassan and his sister Sadia went to the hospital together. They went into a room with a doctor to find out what had been found on his scans.

“He just said ‘we’ve found a 14cm tumour just behind your sternum, we’re not sure if it’s what we think it is but we do need to start you on some treatment’. I instantly thought ‘cancer’ at that point whereas Hassan didn’t really realise what he was talking about, he just looked at me – a tear dropped from my eye and he looked and said ‘why are you crying? We’ll get through this don’t worry’ and then he said ‘thank God’ in Arabic.”

A week later, Hassan was transferred to UCLH and started chemotherapy treatment. They were still not sure what the diagnosis of the tumour was so they had to do further tests. Two days later, they were handed a leaflet that said ‘childhood AML’.

Hassan started chemotherapy but after a couple of cycles, they realised it wasn’t working and they needed to change his treatment plan. However, they soon found that was not working either.

“That was the point they told us that there wasn’t much they could do, all they could do was prep him for radiotherapy and just prolong his life as much as they can. At that point it really did hit me because I thought ‘it’s been about seven months now, we’ve been through a lot of treatment’ I just thought to myself ‘why?’ questions like that kept coming to my brain.

“But with Hassan once again he said ‘Alhamdullilah’ which means ‘thank God’ and he kept his faith so strong with him and I think that’s what got him through this whole treatment and everything that came with it.

“We just spent as much time as we could with each other and it was nice because the kids came round, the kids were so close to Hassan, they would never leave his side.

“We had a religious gathering on the Thursday night and Hassan was present on that night and it was praising our God, our Prophet – we went through a very long prayer for Hassan as well and he was present as well.

“That same night when everyone had left, Hassan couldn’t feel his legs he said they were heavy and he was sweating quite profusely as well. I think at that point I looked at him and said ‘something isn’t right, I think it’s best we call 999.”

The ambulance arrived and Hassan was transferred to the hospital.

“I think it hit me at 2am on the Friday morning, I just looked at him and I thought ‘I’ve got this really bad feeling that something’s going to happen’. I put on the Qur’an under his pillow so he could listen to it and I think that helped him become more relaxed.

“It got to about 4:30 where I noticed a change in Hassan, I don’t know what I mean by that because he was just so peaceful, he was laying there peacefully. I called my sister up again and I said ‘I think you better get here now’”

Hassan sadly died at 5:17am that morning.

“He just got up, looked up, rolled over to his back and started whispering and I just said ‘Hassan is everything ok?’ He took a really deep breath in but wasn’t blowing out the air so I was like ‘what’s happening?’. When he took that deep breath in, he took another one in and he said ‘Shahadah’ which in Islam we have this thing which is ‘there is no God but Allah and Prophet Muhammed peace be upon him is our last messenger’ and in the Qur’an it mentions it’s very hard for people to breathe out these words but only the special people and God’s chosen ones are able to say these words. Then the machine hit a flat line.

“At the time I didn’t really note down the blessings that were shown to me from God but sitting back and looking at it now, there were so many things where Hassan was and is the chosen one. People to this day are still talking about the way he passed – not everyone passes the way he did.”

Throughout Hassan’s treatment, he and his family were supported by Mikela, a Young Lives vs Cancer Social Worker.

“Mikela came into our lives when Hassan was first diagnosed with cancer. Hassan enjoyed having Mikela there to speak to and I think that’s what I appreciated of her because you can speak to your family members but sometimes it gets hard for family members to hear things like ‘I don’t want to do this anymore’ or ‘I’m sick and tired of this’. Hassan could speak to her quite openly.

“Mikela made him feel very comfortable and she made a lot of things happen like a nintendo and PS4 and funding. We didn’t really love hospital food and it got to the point where it was getting too much for us to keep eating the same food again and again. Mikela said to us there was a charity that can give us a bit of funding for food and that’s what she did, she got in touch with those charities, and we got that money within the end of the week. The fact that Mikela had so much knowledge about different charities that would help us with different things, that helped us so much

“Mikela was that breath of fresh air – she would come in, I’d leave the room and get 15 minutes to myself, I’d go outside, I got the chance to escape the hospital room and also Hassan got that escape from me and a chance to speak to Mikela.”

Mikela is still in touch with Sadia now.

“Every other month she will contact me and say ‘how are you getting on? How are things? Tell me about the last month?’ so it’s something really for me to do where I still have that connection with Mikela and Young Lives vs Cancer because as a family we’ve gone through the pain of losing someone, we’ve gone through the pain of seeing the person you love deteriorate, it’s not nice but the support that we’ve had from different people especially Mikela, it helped a lot.”

Sadia, who had been training to be a paramedic, had put a pause on her career to look after her brother. She has returned to work – as she says, inspired by the words her brother said to her.

“Hassan looked at me and said ‘be the paramedic I want you to be, do it for yourself and if you can’t do it for yourself, do it for me’ and I think that’s what gets me through work days and life. I always think about Hassan and how he would want me out there helping other people.”