Girl, 5, died after fighting leukaemia her family knew nothing about

Little Aria died days after the devastating diagnosis (Picture: Wales News Service) A five-year-old girl died from an illness that her family knew nothing about, an inquest has heard. Aria Rose George died just four days after falling ill for the first time in September last year. An inquest heard she was not known to suffer from any medical conditions when she went to her doctor for treatment. She was then referred to the hospital and handed medication, but her condition did not improve, and she was transferred to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff for a CT scan. There, it was found she suffered from a global intracerebral bleed with hydrocephalus, and further tests showed she had acute myeloid leukaemia. Medical teams placed Aria, of Cimla, Neath, in ‘supportive comfort care’ with her parents by her bedside before she died on September 27, 2024. She was rushed to the University Hospital in Cardiff, where she later passed (Picture: Wales News Service) Her proposed cause of death has been given as intracerebral haemorrhage and acute myeloid leukaemia. Coroner Aled Gruffydd said an inquest will examine whether earlier treatment could have been provided. The hearing will resume on April 29, 2026. A funeral notice issued at the time described Aria as the ‘precious daughter of Fran and Darren’ and a cherished sister to her four siblings. It added that Aria ‘fell asleep at the Heath Hospital, Cardiff, with her devoted family at her side.’ Mourners at her funeral last October were asked to wear a splash of blue or red in honour of her love of Spiderman. In 2020, a baby died just after turning one after her cancer was mistakenly diagnosed as a milk allergy. Rose Jeans, one, had first begun suffering mild bowel issues when she was just six months old, but was later admitted to hospital after her parents, Andrew and Catherine, realised something ‘wasn’t right’. At 10 months old, doctors found several masses on her brain, which they thought at first could be benign birthmark-type lesions, but over the next few nights, her condition began to deteriorate. She was then blue-lighted to Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital in Cardiff. There, she underwent MRIs, CT scans, three brain surgeries, with medics then telling her parents that she had Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumour, a rare and fast-growing cancer. On February 10, 2020, Rose was transferred to Ty Hafan hospice, where she died two days after her first birthday on February 13 in Mrs Jeans’ arms. The family has been left heartbroken by her death after suffering two miscarriages before she was born. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. For more stories like this, check our news page.