The morning before Caitlin Leggett went into hospital for the last time, she and her sisters went to try on bridesmaids’ dresses. Their father and his partner, Sarah, were planning a wedding, and Caitlin was to be Sarah’s maid of honour.
“She mentioned to a couple of people that she was the happiest that she’d ever been in her last two weeks,” her sister Neve said. “Even though she won’t be there for the wedding, we got to get dressed up, all together.”
Caitlin, 24, from Cardiff, died on 15 June. She had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in April 2025. The BBC reported her story weeks after the family began fundraising for treatment abroad.
Twins who turned out to be identical
Caitlin urgently needed a stem cell transplant, and her sister Grace was tested as a possible donor. The tests showed that the two, long believed to be fraternal because they developed in separate amniotic sacs, had exactly the same genetic markers. They were identical twins. The discovery complicated things, because their near-identical DNA meant Grace could not donate.
After months of chemotherapy and the transplant in December 2025, Caitlin was in complete remission. In May 2026, doctors found the cancer had returned. She was told she had six months to live.
“Nobody expects this to happen,” Grace said. “You’re not supposed to have one twin not be there.”
The fundraiser
The family had decided to look for potentially curative treatment abroad. A GoFundMe launched on 2 June raised more than £100,000 by 10 June.
On Saturday 13 June, Caitlin had a sudden, serious brain bleed, followed by a series of strokes. Her health fell quickly. She died two days later with Grace, her brother Ethan, 27, her sister Neve, 19, and her parents Jennifer, 54, and Ian, 57, around her.
“We all got the chance to speak to her,” Grace said. “Neve put her favourite pillow spray on, we massaged her hands with lotion, and the nurses gave us a memory box with special paper and a charcoal wipe, so we could take her footprints and hand prints.” Grace also played piano. Caitlin died peacefully while music by her favourite pianist, Patrik Pietschmann, played on a speaker.
Grace said her sister had been scared when she learned she had six months. “But I think she was scared of a slow death, knowing she could die in six months. So I’m just really grateful that it was really quick, and she didn’t know.”
Remembering Caitlin
The twins shared a student house while both studied at the University of Bristol. When Caitlin fell ill, Grace quit her job as a complex care personal assistant in Bristol and moved back to Cardiff to be near the family.
Ethan remembered a funny sister. “It’s not the type of funny that’s just telling jokes, it’s sibling banter that just bounces off each other, we’re just one upping each other, like tennis,” he said. Their mother, Jennifer, called her “warm, bubbly, humble and loving” and “fiercely independently-minded”. Ian praised her “fighting spirit” and her “ability to live in the now and not worry about things outside of her control”.
The family paused the GoFundMe on 27 June. The total stood at £127,722. Grace said the money would go to charity or toward honouring Caitlin’s memory. One donation will fund a lead nurse for a year at Teenage Cancer Trust in Cardiff and South Wales. Another will fund a Leukaemia UK research grant. A small amount will pay for tree planting, memorial plaques, school awards and a dedicated piano in the hospital.
