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.’
‘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).
She married her partner Sean Suson on July 12, 2024 and documented their nuptials and honeymoon in Thailand online. The pair had got engaged on her 21st birthday which came one month after she was diagnosed with cancer.
Her post continued: ‘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. 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.’
Revealing why she had got married after her diagnosis, she said: ‘When I was getting diagnosed with terminal cancer, and I learned that I’m never gonna be able to have kids, which is like such a normal thing that people get to do.
‘I felt like that was taken away from me. The privilege of getting to grow old was taken from me, like so many life experiences. But one thing I could do which was normal in life was get engaged and get married.’
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..
Colon cancer begins in the inner lining of the colon and grows into the deeper levels of cells before breaching the colon wall and invading nearby blood vessels and the lymph system.
When cancer cells break off and enter the bloodstream, they enter the liver with the blood that drains from the colon. Once there, cells can escape immune detection and take hold in liver tissue.
Tumor cells steal nutrients meant for liver tissue, hijack immune cells, and begin to create durable shields around tumors to survive attacks.
At the start of last year, Dominique began experiencing bouts of diarrhea and constipation. Then she saw blood in her stool, a common symptom of cancer.
Other common symptoms included stomach pain, anemia, and changes in bowel habit
McShain was always fatigued to the point where she was not taking in any of her professors’ lectures.
‘I’d have a normal night’s sleep but then sleep another five to six hours every single day,’ she said.
She added: ‘I also started to develop severe abdominal pain and I also lost my appetite like, severely. I was just not feeling well.’
She waited three to four weeks before going to the doctor, fearing that if she went to the hospital before her symptoms got worse, doctors would be more likely to brush off her concerns, chalking it up to normal constipation that can be easily resolved with over-the-counter treatments.
Eventually, she underwent a blood test, and while her general markers were typical, ruling out myriad issues such as kidney disease or anemia, her liver blood samples showed ‘abnormally high’ amounts of enzymes and proteins, indicating organ damage.
She had to rush to Christchurch Hospital for an ultrasound, which revealed several lumps in her colon.
McShain continued to feel unwell and ultimately had a biopsy, which confirmed that she had colon cancer and only a year to five left to live.
But the drastic cut to that life expectancy came after her liver began failing. She went into the hospital because doctors believed she had a build-up of fluid in her stomach. She couldn’t walk or turn around and was in so much pain that she was in tears.
Doctors conducted an ultrasound to locate the pockets of fluid and found none.
She said days ago: ‘Unfortunately, later in the afternoon, after the oncologists had some discussion, they basically worked out that all the stuff I’m getting is caused by my cancer and liver failure and not anything to do with fluid. Which led them to tell me that I only have a few short days to a few short weeks to live.
‘I fought as hard as I could, truly,’ she added. ‘I find comfort in knowing I won’t have to suffer everyday soon.’
