A TikTok influencer who documented her bowel cancer diagnosis has died aged 21.
Dominique McShain was only 20 years old when she was told she had ‘incurable’ colorectal cancer that had spread to her liver in April last year.
McShain, who was from Christchurch in New Zealand, had been studying psychology before receiving the devastating diagnosis.
Soon after her cancer was discovered, she began documenting her treatment online, gaining almost 200,000 followers on TikTok.
Although she was initially told she had up to five years to live, she died this month, just over a year since her diagnosis.
Posting a ‘final update’ to Instagram, she told her followers she didn’t have long to live.
‘I have recently been given a prognosis about 5 days ago of only a few days to a few weeks to live,” she wrote.
‘My liver is rapidly failing to the point of jaundice and the cancer is progressing quickly.
‘Because of this I am no longer able to receive any treatments, including the chemo I’ve been on for 7 months over the last year.’
She continued: ‘At this point I’ve transitioned to end of life care, focusing on pain relief and managing side effects, with so much time spent in both the hospital and hospice facilities.’
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McShain went on to share that while her life ‘may be short’, she had ‘squeezed every bit out of it’.
‘I won the lottery with a family that loves me unconditionally, friends who would 10000 per cent donate a liver to me or do anything they could (and probably argue over who gets to do it).
‘And the sweetest husband Sean who has been my rock through everything – before and after diagnosis.’
She went on to detail how she’d ‘checked of all the classic teenage milestones’ and ‘big adult moments’ like getting married, getting a dog and travelling.
But, she added: ‘Of course there are so many key adult moments I won’t get to experience, things I won’t get to be or have, and that’s something I’ve had to come to terms with.
‘The grief of what I’m missing out on is no longer overwhelming though. Recently, I’ve found a sense of acceptance. Each doctor’s visit, each piece of bad news, has truthfully desensitised me to much of the pain, but in the process I’ve found peace in knowing there’s something more waiting for me on the other side.’
She went on to detail how she’d been imagining Heaven as a place where she’d be without ‘the constant suffering and no longer needing medication to survive the day’. ‘Thought it will hurt to leave you all behind, please know that I will finally be out of pain, and I will be at peace.’
When sharing her first TikTok video, McShain spoke about wanting to raise awareness by sharing her cancer journey online.
‘I wanted to make a difference somehow and leave something behind and hopefully help people,’ she said. ‘I know that cancer is getting a lot more common in the colon for younger people, so I really wanted to eventually share my symptoms and raise awareness.’
She went on to share videos that documented shaving her hair before chemotherapy, sharing her symptoms and getting engaged and married.
Bowel cancer rates in the UK
More than nine in 10 cases of bowel cancer in the UK are in those over 50, but the disease is increasingly being diagnosed in those under 50, in whom it is more likely to be aggressive and deadly.
Around 43,000 people are diagnosed each year, but half of UK adults have never taken up a cancer screening invitation and over a third of adults don’t know what warning signs to look out for, according to research from Bupa.
Experts say deaths in those aged under 50 are set to be about a third higher this year than in 2018, with the highest increase in young women – according to findings published in journal Annals of Oncology.
Here is a list of symptoms to keep watch for, according to the NHS.
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