Mackenzie Paul, who first went viral in August 2023 after sharing her cancer diagnosis on TikTok, has died at 26.
Her husband, Brandon, confirmed her death in a video posted to TikTok, where he addressed followers who had been tracking her health journey.
“As you know, Kenzie is in heaven now,” he said. “Selfishly, I wish she were here, still with me, and it’s going to take the whole rest of my life to get over this. But the one thing I am really, really happy about is that she’s not in pain anymore.”
“The past two and a half years, I’ve been blessed to be married to the best woman out there,” Brandon continued. “I also had to see her go through some very, very tough times, and you know, she was pretty transparent when it came to social media, but there were times when she was in the ICU and she was not breathing on her own — times none of us really shared — and it was a miracle that she made it this far.”
“It doesn’t even feel real,” he added. “I appreciate all the prayers…But I just want to go up here and update everybody because I know everybody wanted to know how Kenzie was doing….She was my rock, she was my best friend, she’s always going to be my best friend.”
Paul built a large following while documenting her leukemia battle
Paul first spoke publicly about her diagnosis in October 2023, when she revealed she had acute myeloid leukemia while studying as a second-year medical student at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.
The former Lake Superior State University athlete said she went to the doctor after feeling dizzy during a clinical rotation.
“Other than being more tired, I really didn’t have any symptoms,” she said. “My whole life I’ve been really healthy. I was a college athlete. But I remember looking at my labs and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is horrible.’”
After sharing her story on TikTok and Instagram, Paul built a following of nearly 30,000 people and launched her daily series, #TakingBackWhatCancerTookFromMe, where she documented small personal victories throughout treatment.
“I had no idea how truly challenging this journey would be,” she said in November 2025. “I believed I would undergo a stem cell transplant and then return to my life as a medical student. I never imagined that, more than two years later, I would still be fighting for my life, and now, for a miracle.”
