A preteen has been hospitalized with an aggressive form of cancer after doctors insisted that she was “perfectly healthy.”In May 2026, Armaie Burrows-Pitt — an 11-year-old from Warwickshire, England — was on vacation with her family when she started experiencing extreme fatigue and loss of appetite. “We went to Devon at the end of May and she had us all worried as we could see she was going downhill,” her mother, Nikki, told Southwest News Service. “She was tired and didn’t want to play much. She would take herself off to the corner of the park. She didn’t want to talk, walk or eat — she just wanted to lie down.”

Armaie Burrows-Pitt.Emma Whyte / SWNS
Nikki, a mother of two, took Armaie to their hometown emergency room, where she was told that it was likely a viral infection. Days later, in early June, she visited their general practitioner, who said that Armaie was simply dealing with a bout of tonsillitis and prescribed antibiotics.

“I was told she was perfectly fit and healthy by the GP, but we knew she wasn’t as she’s such a fit and active young girl who’s full of energy usually,” Nikki recalled. “Then I took her back to Warwick just to be told it was tonsillitis again and to finish the antibiotics, but we knew it was something more.”
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Armaie Burrows-Pitt.Emma Whyte / SWNS
Armaie remained bedridden and unable to eat. Her parents grew even more concerned when she started complaining of pain in her neck, shin and groin. On June 10, Nikki took her daughter back to the emergency room and demanded answers.

“I said: ‘I’m not leaving until you do a blood test.’ They did one and admitted her,” she said. “They thought it was sepsis, TB, or an infection from Egypt from when we went in February.”

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Armaie Burrows-Pitt in the hospital.Emma Whyte / SWNS
Armaie spent 15 days in the hospital undergoing tests before being transferred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Once there, she was officially diagnosed with stage 4 Burkitt lymphoma, an aggressive type of blood cancer that primarily affects children. The disease had already spread to Armaie’s spleen, liver and bone marrow.

“It was all very traumatizing, having your daughter in hospital and not knowing what’s wrong with her for all those weeks,” Nikki said. “It was very frustrating because every single GP I saw kept saying she was fine. She’s never seen a doctor in her life and has never been to a hospital, I knew she wasn’t right.”

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Armaie and her mother Nikki.Emma Whyte / SWNS
“It’s very frustrating to be told she’s okay when she’s not. She wouldn’t get out of bed, she didn’t want to walk or eat or drink — it’s not normal for a fit and active child to be completely wiped out,” she continued. “Children with symptoms like this probably get dismissed, which is frustrating. You’d think they would assume the worst-case scenario first and rule it out, so to be left three or four weeks without a diagnosis was heartbreaking.”

Armaie is currently undergoing six months of chemotherapy. The family is now fundraising in order to cover the costs of treatment and to take her on a lot of vacations as she navigates the disease.

“In a strange way, it’s brought us all together in the worst time imaginable,” Armaie’s aunt, Emma, told the outlet.