Teenager, 19, with rare immune disorder died after missing life-saving hospital treatment when he was told he was finally fit enough to work, says heartbroken sister
Despite facing a lifetime of illness and adversity, Kieron Cameron was always determined to make everyone around him smile.
Born with hypogammaglobulinaemia – a rare disorder that leaves the body with dangerously low levels of antibodies needed to fight infection – Kieron was vulnerable from the moment he was born.
Doctors warned his family that he might never reach his teenage years. His older brother, who had the same condition, died aged just two after contracting pneumonia.
When Kieron also developed pneumonia as a baby, his family feared history was about to repeat itself.
For patients with hypogammaglobulinaemia, infections such as pneumonia can be life-threatening because the body struggles to fight them off. Pneumonia can also make it harder for the lungs to get oxygen into the blood, placing huge strain on an already vulnerable patient.
But the football-loving teenager from Fife, who dreamed of becoming a vet, defied the odds.
Every three weeks, he travelled to the Sick Kids Hospital in Edinburgh for antibody transfusions to help strengthen his immune system.
Although he remained at risk of serious complications from everyday infections, including colds and flu, the treatment helped him grow stronger.
Billie Cameron (right) has spoken to the Daily Mail after her brother Kieron died after living with hypogammaglobulinemia
There are no official figures for how many people in Britain have hypogammaglobulinaemia, but it is thought that only a few thousand are living with similar antibody deficiencies.
Last year, Kieron’s health had improved so much that, for the first time in his life, he was told he was fit enough to work.
But his sister Billie, 22, believes he may have wrongly taken that news to mean he no longer needed his regular transfusions.
He suddenly stopped attending his appointments, with devastating consequences.
Earlier this month, Kieron was admitted to a local hospital with pneumonia and sepsis before being transferred to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for specialist treatment.
Tragically, however, his weakened body could not fight it, and he died aged just 19.
Now speaking to the Daily Mail, Kieron’s sister Billie says the family had no idea he had stopped his treatment.
She is now left grieving and picking up the pieces.
‘Last year, he got the all clear that he was able to work,’ says Billie, who has now launched a GoFundMe to help contribute to funeral costs for her younger brother.
‘I think he kind of took that as not needing any more infusions.’
Billie (right) says she and Kieron were really close after growing up in difficult circumstances
Billie, who now lives in Blackpool, Lancashire, with her partner, only discovered that Kieron had stopped receiving treatment after doctors reviewed his medical records during his final hospital admission.
‘He hadn’t been receiving any of his treatment for a year,’ Billie continued. ‘So, when he did get really unwell, there was really not any way to help him.
‘I don’t know [why he stopped going]. He didn’t tell anybody. When anyone asked, he said he still was going, but there were no visits recorded since last year.’
At the first hospital, doctors placed Kieron into an induced coma after his lungs failed before later transferring him to receive extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) – an advanced form of life support deployed in life-threatening situations which adds oxygen and removes carbon dioxide from the body.
However, his blood pressure dropped, his kidneys failed – requiring dialysis, a treatment that removes excess waste from the kidneys – before doctors began seeing signs that his liver was shutting down too.
Despite the best efforts of the medics, Kieron could not be saved.
‘It just snowballed into such a bigger picture,’ says Billie, who was in Scotland to be by her brother’s side.
‘Me and my partner spent every moment we could by his bedside, hoping and praying for a miracle. Watching someone so young go through so much was devastating.’
Though his battle with illness and the heartbreak of losing family members – including his mother in 2017 – dominated much of Kieron’s life, Billie said it never defined who he was.
A lifelong football fan, he loved following football teams Raith Rovers and Rangers, and adored animals.
‘He was just a really positive person and somebody everybody could rely on to cheer them up,’ Billie said.
Though hundreds of miles apart during the last few years, Billie says she and her brother shared an exceptionally strong bond.
This was forged through years of hardship as children, particularly when the death of their mother saw them placed into foster care.
‘We were really close,’ she says. ‘It’s kind of always been mainly me and my brother.
‘I moved away in 2024, but we still had regular contact. I hadn’t seen him in two years because I couldn’t always make the time to go down there.
‘But we had a really close relationship. We went through a lot together.’
Billie says Kieron was trying to rebuild his life before his death. Living in temporary council housing, he had hoped one day go to college and pursue his passion.
Devastatingly, he will never have that chance, and now Billie is left arranging his funeral.
She says: ‘Me and my partner are dealing everything that comes with his passing, like funeral arrangements, finding the funds for that and registering his death.
‘It’s obviously really hard for us because we’re only 21 and 22. We don’t really know what to do in these situations.
‘We just want to give him the send-off he deserves.’
