TikTok star, 22, with half a million followers dies
12.03.2024 - 09:03
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A TikTok star who documented her battle with cancer has sadly died. Leah Smith, from Woolton, Liverpool, died yesterday morning, March 11.
The 22-year-old was suffering from Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that affects the bones and soft tissue. The Liverpool Echo reports that Ewing's Sarcoma mainly affects children and young people, with most cases diagnosed in people aged 10 to 20.
Leah had been complaining of back ache 10 months prior to her formal diagnosis in October 2019, but never imagined she had cancer.
Speaking in 2020, she said: "I had really bad back pains for 10 months. It was constant then I lost all the feeling in my left leg and I knew something was most definitely wrong."
The young woman, who had nearly half a million followers on TikTok, captured people's hearts by sharing hospital updates on the video-sharing app.
She said: "I wanted to start a TikTok to express my journey and show people my life living with cancer - the ups and downs of it. People absolutely love it."
Leah shared videos of herself doing dances, comedy videos and cancer updates. One video was viewed more than 4.5 million times.
Leah's heartbroken boyfriend, Andrew, announced her death yesterday in a video on TikTok. He said: "This is just a message to anyone that's followed Leah or gave her any support or any nice comments. I'm sad to say that she passed away today at around 11.30 this morning.
"I just want to say thank you to everyone. All your comments did help - she did actually read all of them. Anyone who said anything nice ever - it means more than you realise. We'll all miss Leah but we'll make sure that we never forget her.
"I want to see everyone speaking about Leah and how amazing she is and how much she helped