PEOPLE can confirm that influencer Dominique McShain has died at age 21, just over one year after she was diagnosed with incurable colon cancer in April 2024.
Based in New Zealand, the late content creator started posting about her illness to hopefully help other young people avoid missing the same signs and symptoms she wished she had caught earlier.
Over the past year, McShain shared glimpses into her life with over 200,000 followers across major social media platforms.
Influencer Dominique McShain has died at age 21, PEOPLE can confirm. The news comes about one year after she shared that she was diagnosed with incurable colorectal cancer in April 2024.
On April 6, she posted an emotional message on social media to inform her followers that she was nearing the end of her life. The young TikTok star said she was recently given a prognosis “of only a few days to a few weeks to live.”
Her liver was “failing rapidly to the point of jaundice,” she wrote, and her cancer was “progressing quickly.” Because of these developments, McShain has transitioned into hospice care to focus on “pain relief and managing side effects,” she said at the time.
“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),” wrote McShain in one of her final posts.
Dominique McShain/Instagram
Dominique McShain.
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“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,” she concluded. “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.
McShain started sharing on TikTok in May 2024, just after her university career was derailed by the unexpected diagnosis. In her introductory video about her cancer, the content creator explained that it had metastasized to her liver and that she was expected to live between one and five years.
“I was, until two weeks ago, a third-year psychology student, and I wanted to do clinical psychology eventually. And that would take another five years to study for,” she told the camera. In addition to her schoolwork, she was also working part-time in HR before receiving the terminal diagnosis.
“Basically I stopped work and uni because I have such severe cancer, and the treatment is so intense,” she said, noting that she’d already undergone one round of chemotherapy, which caused her to have some “really bad days.”
In her initial TikTok post, McShain expressed her above-all hope was to leave a legacy that could benefit people, hence why she started sharing her story on social media, where she has over 200,000 followers between TikTok and Instagram.
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“I wanted to make a difference somehow and leave something behind and hopefully help people,” said McShain. “I know that cancer is getting a lot more common in the colon for younger people, so I really wanted to eventually share my symptoms and raise awareness.”
The late creator continued sharing glimpses into her life over the past year, including her wedding to partner Sean Suson on July 12, 2024, and their honeymoon trip to Thailand. This past January, McShain shared a video explaining why she “got married so young.” She began by detailing that she and Sean got engaged on her 21st birthday, one month after she was diagnosed with colon cancer.
“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,” said McShain. “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.”
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