TikTok Influencer Dr. Kimberley Nix, who went viral by documenting her battle with sarcoma cancer, has died at the age of 31.
Nix, an Alberta native, announced her own death in a heartbreaking farewell video released on her TikTok account posthumously.
“Hello followers, if you’re seeing this message I have passed away peacefully,” she said in the clip, which had
“For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Kim, hi! It’s so nice to meet you and you’re welcome to check out all the cool sarcoma facts, information and my lived experience with death and dying with sarcoma cancer. You don’t have to go just because you’re new.”
“I love you all, thank you so much for this amazing opportunity. I’m in happy tears because you’ve all made me find so much purpose in the end of my life," Nix added.
Sarcoma cancer is a rare form that develops "in the bones and soft tissues, including fat, muscles, blood vessels, nerves, deep skin tissues and fibrous tissues," according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Nix's farewell post advised her followers to donate to sarcoma cancer research via SarcomaAlliance.org and to follow her husband, @lightestcheese, for more updates.
Nix was diagnosed with metastatic sarcoma in 2021 when she was in the final year of internal medicine core residency. The disease is reported to have an 18% five-year survival rate once it spreads throughout the body.
“Symptoms of sarcoma are so important because there is no screening test,” Nix told PEOPLE.com. “My symptom was the most common symptom in soft tissue sarcoma. [Everything was] completely normal — including all my lab values — except for a small, but rapidly growing lump in my left leg.”