TikTok Star Dies From Bone Cancer: Leah Smith Was 22

Leah Smith, 22, a TikTok star and Liverpool native who had more than 500,000 followers, has died from stage 4 bone cancer, her boyfriend Andrew revealed Monday in a video shared on her account. 

Smith had Ewing Sarcoma, a form of bone cancer that “occurs primarily in the bone or soft tissue,” according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. It is the second-most common type of bone cancer in children and young adults, accounting for about 1 percent of childhood cancers, and very rare in adults.

“I’m sad to say that she passed away today around half-eleven this morning,” Andrew said in the video. “I just want to say thank you to everyone. All your comments did help, like, she did actually read all of them. Anyone who said anything nice ever, it means more than you realize.”

Smith shared on TikTok at the end of January that she was not feeling well again. “I hate this, like being in bed for a week… I go to sleep and wake up even worse than I did feel the night before. I’m so unwell.” Due to her severe pain, doctors sent her for tests to determine whether her cancer had spread.

On Feb. 8, Smith announced the cancer had spread and the tumors had grown. She acknowledged her pain medication had changed but said, “this feels like the [beginning] of the end.” Then, on Feb. 14, Smith revealed that things had “taken a bad turn,” and she had fluid on her right lung.

The situation had deteriorated further on Feb. 18, when Smith posted another video. “Update that I didn’t think I ever wanted to do,” she wrote. “The doctors have said there’s no point trying to give me more antibiotics and fluids because it just isn’t working anymore. All the pain meds aren’t working so they really just want to get me to a comfortable state as much as possible.”

“Idk what this means for me if this is the end up the journey but all my family have came around and I am just going to act like I’m good and great because quite frankly I am so so scared. I don’t want to d!e yet. I’m sorry.”

In the end, her brother, Liam, and friend, Vikki, took over posting updates for Smith until Andrew announced her death on Monday. “We’ll all miss Leah, but we’ll make sure that we never forget her,” Andrew said in the video. “I want to see everyone speaking about Leah, how amazing she is and how much she helped everyone. We’ll never let Leah be forgotten.”