Parents are mourning the passing of their 17-year-old daughter after her breast cancer symptoms were allegedly dismissed due to her young age.
In 2022, Isla Sneddon was only 15 when she first visited the doctor with concerns about a lump in her breast. The medical professionals attributed the lump to hormonal changes typical in teenagers.
Two years later, Isla’s doctor began to suspect the lump might be breast cancer, leading to a referral for a biopsy. Despite this, her age caused her case to be downgraded in urgency.
Tragically, by the time Isla received a breast cancer diagnosis in 2024, it was found she had a sarcoma—which had already metastasized to her heart, lungs, and lymph nodes.
The seriousness of her condition meant her family was informed that Isla had a prognosis of only six to 12 months.
Isla, hailing from Airdrie, Scotland, passed away in March 2025 at just 17 years old.
Reflecting on the time it took to diagnose Isla’s cancer, her mother Michelle recounted to STV News how doctors initially attributed Isla’s condition to anxiety.
“They kept saying Isla had anxiety,” Michelle stated. “Everything was anxiety.”
Shortly after that, Isla’s health deteriorated significantly, leading to her cancer diagnosis.
In the months before her passing, Isla’s family cherished their time with her, although her health took a sudden downturn.
Her father Mark recounted, “She got up on a Sunday morning and said, ‘Dad, I don’t feel well, I think you need to take me to hospital’. She would never ask to go to hospital, because she’d been in hospital for so long.
“We had waited six hours for an ambulance, so me and my brother put her in a wheelchair – we couldn’t lift her because she was so fragile – and we took her to the hospital.”
“They took her straight in and said her needs were too complex for the hospital, but they couldn’t move her,” he continued. “Then she crashed.”
“We nursed her for six months of chemotherapy and she died in our arms in hospital.”
Mark and Michelle believe that earlier screening could have afforded them additional time with their cherished daughter.
Now, the family is advocating for the creation of Isla’s Law, a legislative proposal in Scotland that would mandate that pediatric referrals receive the same maximum wait times as adult cancer referrals.
Their petition on Change.org has garnered over 36,000 signatures as of the time of writing, and the family is scheduled to meet with Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray to voice their concerns.
You can sign the petition here.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.