18-year-old Sophie Mills has succumbed to the mesothelioma that she was diagnosed with 5 years ago. Sophie was Englands youngest known patient to be diagnosed with the disease that typically affects people over the age of sixty-five who were exposed to asbestos at work.
Pleural mesothelioma is a cancer of the mesothelial cells, caused by breathing in asbestos fibers that become lodged in the thin membrane that lines and encases the lungs. Most cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed 30 years or more after exposure, with the latency period sometimes being as long as 50 years. The Mills family has not been able to identify any asbestos exposure that could be responsible for the young girl contracting the disease.
Sophie successfully battled mesothelioma for over 5 years and continued to live a full life. She was a musician and actor and performed with an amateur acting group and took classes in performing arts, all the while being treated through surgeries and chemotherapy.
Mesothelioma is highly aggressive and is resistant to many standard cancer treatments, but the symptoms can be treated with varying degrees of success through the use of surgical procedures, chemotherapy and radiation. Often, by the time the symptoms appear the disease has progressed to an advanced stage. In April the cancer spread to the teenagers spine, leaving her paralyzed from the neck down.