TikTok star Dominique McShain has passed away at the age of 21 following a courageous year-long battle with terminal colon cancer.
The New Zealand native was diagnosed in April 2024 with advanced colon cancer that had spread to her liver. Just 20 at the time, McShain openly shared her journey with nearly 200,000 followers, documenting her treatments and emotional reflections in her final months.
A psychology student with aspirations of becoming a therapist for at-risk youth, McShain revealed early on that doctors had given her a prognosis of one to five years.
Her passing comes just over two weeks after she posted a final update on social media, in which she shared that she had only days remaining. Her death was confirmed by People magazine.
In her last message on Instagram 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).
‘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.’
‘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.’
Dominique McShain married her partner, Sean Suson, on July 12, 2024, and lovingly shared moments from their wedding and honeymoon in Thailand with her followers. The couple had become engaged on her 21st birthday—just one month after she received her devastating cancer diagnosis per Daily Mail.
McShain had undergone seven months of chemotherapy before treatment was abruptly halted due to liver failure, which caused visible jaundice, turning her skin and eyes yellow. Her diagnosis at age 20 followed months of troubling symptoms, including fatigue, constipation, and blood in her stool.