Internet star Anna Grace Phelan dies at 19 from brain cancer
A social media star has died at 19, just months after she took to TikTok to reveal that the deadly disease had been discovered before she was set to leave for college.
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A 19-year-old TikTok star has died of brain cancer after revealing she was battling the illness just eight months ago.
Anna Grace Phelan’s death was confirmed Saturday in a message on her TikTok page.
“It is with great sadness to announce that our beautiful daughter, Anna Grace Phelan, went home to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” the message said.
“So many of you have followed her journey through a difficult battle with cancer and bore witness to her powerful testimony of faith.
“Thank you for the countless thousands of prayers for healing and peace. May we all rejoice with the assurance that she is in Heaven now, and she has been healed.”
According to Phelan’s obituary, her funeral service will be held on Thursday in Jackson County, Georgia, the New York Post reported.
Phelan is survived by her parents, William “Buddy” Phelan and Nadine Phelan, brother Harper David Phelan and more family members.
The influencer revealed to her followers last September that she was battling brain cancer. Her diagnosis came days before she was due to start her first year of college.
In a previous TikTok video, Phelan explained that her initial symptoms included numbness in the left side of her face and in the right side of her leg. That led to her scheduling an MRI which showed a lesion on her brain.
“I started losing my balance,” she told her followers.
“I started having vision problems in my left eye, my numbness in my face and on my leg is still here. My speech started to seem weird. My head’s very foggy.”
After undergoing a biopsy, Phelan learned she had a tumour. She was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a highly aggressive brain cancer that grows rapidly and is incurable.
“This is definitely the hardest news I’ve ever received,” she said in a TikTok video in September.
“By all means, this is not easy. Just going to trust in the Lord and try and keep pushing forward.”
Phelan continued to document her cancer battle on TikTok in the months leading up to her death.
In one of her final videos shared May 14, Phelan said, “Things haven’t been good. My tumour grew and it’s in the area where I can’t breathe. It can’t be operated.”
“So, I just wanted to say thank you for all the prayers,” she continued.
“It would take a miracle, but I’m not giving up yet. If you keep praying for me, I think that I’ll make it.”
A GoFundMe for Phelan was started after her diagnosis. The page has raised over $100,000.
This story originally appeared on the New York Post and reproduced with permission
Originally published as Internet star Anna Grace Phelan dies at 19 from brain cancer
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