A teenager who lost her battle to cancer has been described as a warrior by her heartbroken parents.

Sixteen-year-old Shannon Gilliland died at her home in Canute Road in Deal last Saturday - less than two years after she had been diagnosed with an aggressive childhood cancer.

Her parents Don Gilliland and Louise Dutton say their dance-mad daughter fought right to the end and even achieved three GCSEs in her final months.

She will be remembered as a doting big sister who cared greatly about her friends.

Ms Dutton said: “We just feel numb.

“She always cared about other people and taught her brother so many things.”

Mr Gilliland said: “She was a warrior. She was such an energetic girl up until her diagnosis two years ago. She loved music and dance and was always making playlists.”

Shannon was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic Rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer in her stomach which had spread to other parts of her body, in January 2017.

For three months previously the Goodwin Academy pupil had complained of pains in her side and back which doctors had mistaken for pulled muscles from her love of dancing and zumba.

It was only when the Dance Dynamique troupe member was physically sick at the doctor’s surgery that she was taken to hospital and referred to the Royal Marsden in London.

Four months of aggressive chemotherapy and radiotherapy reduced the size of the cancer from the size of a melon to a grape. The teen also lost her long blonde hair but was determined to embrace the look telling her parents she wanted to “rock the baldness”.

More chemotherapy followed and she was also enrolled on medical trials to fight the disease.

But at the end of July this year, her parents received the devastating news that it had spread to her lungs and all they could do was make her comfortable.

Mr Gilliland said: “It was so hard to take. She was given a 10% chance of survival. They said if she survived the two years, the likelihood was that is would come back in five years.

“She didn’t want anyone being any different. She just wanted to carry on as normal.”

Ms Sutton said: “They call the cancer she had ‘the weed’ because it always grows back and it grows back worse.”

Her parents were full of pride when Shannon achieved two Bs and a C in her Double English and Science GCSE exams. She had plans to sit more at the end of the year.

Ms Sutton said: “She wanted to make her prom and she did. She cried with happiness.”

Now Mr Gilliland will run the London Marathon in Shannon’s memory in aid of children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent, which helped make her final months as fulfilled as possible.

He said: “They’ve done so much for Shannon in the past couple of months as part of a wish list that I want to do this for them.”

She attended a sloth experience day at Drusillas Park, and they organised for her to receive a personal video message from Youtuber Joe Sugg, star of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.

He sent her a parcel containing goodies including an iPad.

Ms Dutton said: “This big, massive red box arrived at the door. They’d emailed me the video and I had to keep it a secret from her until the box arrived. She loved it.”