Kate Middleton’s childhood friend dies in ‘utmost pain’ after tragic three-year battle with brain tumour – Mirror.co.uk

A childhood friend of the Duchess of Cambridge has died after a three-year battle against a brain tumour in which she suffered the utmost pain, distress and loss of dignity.

Isobel Kennerley, who was a member of Kates Brownie pack and went on a pack holiday with Kate and her sister Pippa - lost her battle against the disease in May at the age of 34.

Isobel, who had cerebral palsy, met the sisters in 1990, when they joined the 1st St Andrews pack of Brownies. She was in Kates six and joined them on a pack holiday in Easter 1991.

The trio slept in camp bunk beds in old RAF buildings, set in 17 acres at Macaroni Wood, in the Cotswolds, where they fed chickens, collected eggs, watched chicks hatch, bottle-fed lambs and kid goats and went for horse-and-cart rides.

"I really enjoyed it," Isobel said afterwards.

"Everyone was really kind to me. I remember going to Brownie camp at Macaroni Wood and coming back to find an owl at the end of my bed. I dont remember what I did to deserve it but I remember feeling really pleased."

After Brownies, Kate and Isobels paths split as the two girls went to different schools.

Kate attended the private prep school St Andrews, in Pangbourne, and public school Marlborough, while Isobel was a pupil at Engelfield Primary School and Newburys St Gabriels and Park House.

Kate then went up to St Andrews University while Isobel did a degree in educational practice at Oxford Brookes University and later was presented with an award for outstanding achievement by Newbury College, where she was working at the time.

She went on to become a teaching assistant at Newburys St Bartholomews School, specialising in caring for autistic children.

It was while she was at Newbury College that she met her future husband Scott Kennerley, 33, who was working at a local hotel. The couple married in 2010 and set up home within walking distance of her mother.

Yet four years later, after signing up for a distance learning masters degree at Canterbury University, Isobel fell ill.

"She started to get pains in the left-hand side of her body", said her mum Christine Eeley, who also has a son Alexander, 37, a project manager for insurance company.

"We all thought it was her cerebral palsy.

"She was really struggling. She gradually had to be in a manual wheelchair and then in a power chair. We went back to the GP time and time again but nobody got to the bottom of what was causing her pain. In the end I insisted we saw a neurologist."

Isobel was diagnosed with the tumour at Readings Royal Berkshire Hospital in September 2014, after being given an MRI scan, and was referred to Oxfords John Radcliffe Hospital for treatment.

It was there, after having a biopsy, that she discovered she had a Grade IV glioblastoma and there was no cure.

"We were just devastated," her mother said.

"You never imagine that your child will die before you. But Isobel was so brave.

"She faced it head on."

Over the next year, Isobel had six weeks of daily chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment before undergoing another six months of chemo, which shrunk her tumour by 30 per cent.

But by August last year she was unable to walk. Even then she did not give up and was awarded this years Sue Ryder Southern Woman of Courage Award for her bravery.

In March she went into Readings Sue Ryder Hospice where she was given days to live. But she suffered for another seven weeks before dying in May.

Christine said: "Isobel was the bravest girl imaginable.

"She was born with cerebral palsy and was paralysed down the left side of her body but she lived life to the full, always pushing herself beyond her physical limits.

"She never ever complained about what life had thrown at her and, even as a child and after many operations to help her mobility, she just smiled her way through life.

"She certainly didn't deserve to die in the manner in which she did. I dont think she ever imagined that she would suffer so much or that it would get worse. It was just horrific. She begged us to end her life.

"We talk about people living with cancer but we never talk about people dying with cancer. Thats why I feel so strongly that people should have the choice of how to end their lives."

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Kate Middleton's childhood friend dies in 'utmost pain' after tragic three-year battle with brain tumour - Mirror.co.uk