TikTok star Dominique McShain has died aged just 21 after a year-long battle with incurable colon cancer.
New Zealander McShain was diagnosed with colon cancer that had spread to her liver in April 2024 aged 20, and had bravely documented her final months and treatment to her near 200,000 followers on the platform.
At the time, McShain – who had dreams of becoming a psychologist for troubled teens and was studying psychology at college, said doctors had given her between one and five years to live.
People confirmed McShain had died a little over two weeks after she shared a final update on her social media pages revealing she had only days left to live,
In a heartbreaking message on April 6, she said: ‘I want to be direct with you all: this will be my final update on my cancer journey until I have passed away.’
‘I’ve recently been given a prognosis about five days ago of only a few days to a few weeks to live.’
TikTok star Dominique McShain has died aged just 21 after a year-long battle with incurable colon cancer
New Zealander McShain was diagnosed with colon cancer that had spread to her liver in April 2024 aged 20, and had bravely documented her final months and treatment to her near 200,000 followers on the platform
‘My life may be short, but I genuinely think I’ve squeezed every bit out of it. I won the lottery with a family that loves me unconditionally, friends who would 10000% donate a liver to me or do anything they could (and probably argue over who gets to do it).
‘Recently, I’ve been picturing Heaven often — a place where l’ll finally be free from the pain that’s been with me for so long. I imagine myself without the constant suffering, no longer needing medication just to survive the day. I’ll be able to run, to breathe, to feel whole,” she concluded. “Though it will hurt to leave you all behind, please know that I will finally be out of pain, and I will be at peace.’
Her chemotherapy treatments, which she had undergone for seven months, had to stop immediately as her liver failed, leaving her skin and eyes yellow.
‘At this point,’ she said, ‘I’ve transitioned into end-of-life care, focusing on pain relief and managing side effects, with so much time spent in both the hospital and hospice facilities.’
‘I’ve been really numb to everything like I haven’t really been crying,’ she said in an emotional video update, the whites of her eyes tinged yellow.
‘It’s crazy to think that I got given one to five years originally – I got diagnosed the 19th of April – and I’m not even a year yet.’
‘It just feels so surreal how fast my cancer has taken over my body and how fast it grows.’
Her diagnosis at the age of 20, which came after months of fatigue, blood in her stool, and constipation, is just one amid a surge of early-onset colorectal cancer striking people under 50.
Rates of disease in people under 35 nearly doubled from 1990 to 2019, from 21,000 to 41,000, while deaths rose by 25 percent..
