Natasha Hill has launched Because of Amy, a campaign calling for mandatory, standardised cancer training for all GPs in England after her daughter Amy Hill died from stage four metastatic Ewing's sarcoma.

The Sunderland mother said the campaign is about making sure doctors spot the signs earlier, after Amy's illness began in February 2024 with severe back and leg pain, limping and night-time discomfort that were repeatedly believed to be sciatica. Amy was 19 when she died in October 2025, 15 months after diagnosis.

Her family is now turning grief into a push for change that reaches far beyond one hospital or one town. Natasha, 43, said the campaign is aimed at the way symptoms are recognised in surgeries across England, where a missed or delayed referral can leave young patients facing a far more advanced cancer by the time they are tested.

Amy's story has the kind of painful detail that sticks. The day after her 18th birthday in July, her boyfriend took her to A&E with pain in her leg. She had lost some use of it before tests finally found the disease, and a 19cm tumour was discovered. By then, the cancer had already spread.

Natasha said Amy was her best friend, a funny girl with a dark sense of humour who loved reading and wanted a library of her own. The family is arranging one using the 1,000 books Amy had, a tribute that sits beside the campaign now carrying her name.

That personal loss is what gives Because of Amy its force, but it also exposes the unanswered question at the heart of it: whether the drive for mandatory, standardised cancer training will become a real change for GPs in England, or remain a promise built from one family's experience.