{"id":2134,"date":"2026-02-14T15:56:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T15:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/?p=2134"},"modified":"2026-02-14T15:56:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T15:56:32","slug":"woman-who-shared-her-terminal-cancer-journey-online-has-died-at-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/?p=2134","title":{"rendered":"Woman Who Shared Her Terminal Cancer Journey Online Has Died At 26"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"73\" data-end=\"304\">Mackenzie Paul, who went viral in August 2023 for sharing her cancer journey on TikTok, has died at 26. Her husband, Brandon, confirmed her passing, saying she\u2019s \u201cnot in pain anymore\u201d and calling her his \u201crock\u201d and \u201cbest friend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"306\" data-end=\"633\">Diagnosed at 23 with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) while in her second year at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, Paul documented her fight on social media, gaining nearly 30,000 followers. Through her series <strong data-start=\"532\" data-end=\"567\">#TakingBackWhatCancerTookFromMe<\/strong>, she celebrated small victories and shared hope and resilience.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"635\" data-end=\"946\">When her cancer returned in 2024, Paul found solace in art, creating <strong data-start=\"704\" data-end=\"725\">My Mantra Project<\/strong>, where she made portraits of fighters facing cancer, addiction, or mental health challenges, pairing them with their empowering mantras. She credited her husband as a constant source of strength throughout her journey.<\/p>\n<blockquote id=\"v93573932926030670\" class=\"tiktok-embed\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@kenziepaul3\/video\/7597219757263211806\" data-video-id=\"7597219757263211806\"><p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed\/v2\/7597219757263211806?lang=en-US&amp;referrer=https%3A%2F%2Ftiphero.com%2Fwoman-who-shared-her-terminal-cancer-journey-online-has-died-at-26%3Ffbclid%3DIwY2xjawP9egxleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETJNSkw1N0JycDFZWGJ5OWNDc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHhDWTT6kvY2m8Po8YhztsYUp53mVhRB4CHJ-ptIPlEECfdhPFXJCHTto8G5R_aem_3U0gxIt6egrBZ8uPnJSQRg\" name=\"__tt_embed__v93573932926030670\" sandbox=\"allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-scripts allow-top-navigation allow-same-origin\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Mackenzie Paul, who went viral in August 2023 for sharing her cancer journey on TikTok, has died at 26. Her husband, Brandon, confirmed her passing, <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/?p=2134\" title=\"Woman Who Shared Her Terminal Cancer Journey Online Has Died At 26\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2136,"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2134\/revisions\/2136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}