After battling a rare cancer for seven years, a TikToker has passed away.
Rachel Yaffe, who was only 27 years old when she passed away on Friday (October 11), had used the platform to document her journey in the years leading up to her diagnosis.
At the young age of 20, the Lutherville, Maryland, influencer discovered she had fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma – an extremely rare cancer that typically affects young adults and around 200 people around the world annually.
At first, she was under the impression that her condition was limited to gluten intolerance. However, after seeing a family doctor, she was sent to a specialist who found a 20 cm tumor in her liver and informed her that the cancer had progressed to stage four.
It had been removed successfully, but she found out a few months later that the cancer had returned, this time having spread to her lungs and liver.
Her final post on either Instagram, where she has 7,000 followers, or TikTok, where she boasts of more than 54,000, came on September 1.
Speaking to her TikTok followers, she said: “I’m back in New York and I’m back in my apartment that makes me so happy to be in my own space again, but honestly it has not been easy being back here.
“I’m so grateful to be back in my space be surrounded by my friends. That alone has been really helpful for me mentally. I lost so much of my strength when I was getting radiation and I’m starting from day one.
“It’s been so hard for me to get up and force myself to move so I’m working on doing that, thankfully it’s easier to walk around here being in the city.”
Yaffe continued: “Plus I’m working really hard to stick to a very strict food regimine for cancer healing that is also taking up a lot of energy.
“I am occasionally at a pretty low appetite so it’s been a little bit difficult both physically and mentally but I’m working on really just focusing on the small things that bring me joy and really, really prioritizing my mental health as well.
“That’s kind of the update of where I’m at right now.”
According to her obituary, she is survived by ‘her devoted parents, Linda (nee Bass) and Wayne Yaffe; cherished brother and sister, Jordan Yaffe and Jessica Yaffe; dear grandmother, Sydney Bass; and loving dog, Layla.’