Influencer Sidney Raz announced he has been diagnosed with cancer – after his wife Kelsey tragically suffered a baby loss at 26 weeks.
The 31-year-old content creator, who is known for his Life Hacks videos on social media, shared that his daughter died in utero in September.
She succumbed to a congenital condition called holoprosencephaly, in which her brain did not grow into two hemispheres the way it was meant to.
Genetic testing was then performed on her DNA to learn if her parents had any abnormalities that may have impacted the pregnancy.
They did not find any conclusive answers as to what caused their daughter’s condition – but as a result of the examination, Raz discovered he had stomach cancer, learning of his illness years before it would otherwise have been detected.
He declared that his daughter’s DNA ‘saved my life,’ and has explained to his fans that he will now have his stomach surgically removed.
Influencer Sidney Raz announced he has been diagnosed with cancer – after his wife Kelsey tragically suffered a baby loss at 26 weeks
‘I don’t know if I’m ready to say this, but I’m going to and I’m going to get the response that I get,’ Raz said in a social media video posted March 29.
‘So in September I lost my daughter in utero. My wife was pregnant. We lost the baby to holoprosencephaly. She wasn’t growing a brain,’ he explained.
He and Kelsey ‘got some genetic testing done’ and found that their daughter had a deletion that Raz’ wife did not have – but that he did.
‘And because of that deletion, it recent years it has been seen to cause certain types of cancer, specifically stomach cancer,’ he said.
Raz underwent an endoscopy, and one week later, he was told he had stomach cancer, just three hours before he broke the news to his fans online.
He confessed that ‘I don’t know why I feel so compelled to post this on the internet, but I think it’s because I love the community and I love everything that has happened for me on the internet.’
Raz added: ‘But I also kind of wanna like reassure myself that it’s probably the best case scenario that I could’ve hoped for, in that the endoscopy – out of 36 biopsies taken, only one of them showed cancer. And it basically, we caught it really early.’
Shortly thereafter he shared on TikTok that he will have a full gastrectomy – the complete removal of his stomach – on April 18.
The 31-year-old content creator, who is known for his Life Hacks series on social media, shared that his daughter died in utero in September; he and his wife Kelsey are pictured in 2022
For another video, Raz explained that after the operation his food will travel directly from his esophagus to his intestines, without his stomach as a ‘pit stop’ in between
‘You can just do that and then keep going apparently,’ he said. ‘People are asking if it’s going to be partial or total. Total. Total. No more stomach. No more tummy.’
He added that his doctor informed him that ‘if I hadn’t caught it this early, I would be back within three years with stage III or stage IV cancer. So I might not have a stomach, but I’ll be here in three to four years.’
In response to fan questions, Raz recently stated: ‘I had no symptoms. It was literally just my daughter’s DNA that saved my life, and now there can be a path forward.’
For another video, Raz explained that after the operation his food will travel directly from his esophagus to his intestines, without his stomach as a ‘pit stop’ in between.
He will still be able to eat, but will ‘have to chew a lot more and retrain my body how to eat, so I can’t eat as much. It’s gonna be a big adjustment, but I don’t want cancer.’
