Sydney Towle, who chronicled her battle against a rare form of bile duct cancer to more than 1 million followers on her TikTok account and other social media platforms, died on Wednesday, her family said. She was 26.
Towle died from complications of metastatic bile duct cancer, and the news was announced on her social media channels on Thursday, The New York Times reported. On Aug. 4, Towle’s brother announced that she had entered hospice care, according to USA Today.
Towle died nearly three years after receiving her cancer diagnosis.
“We will always love you so much Sydney,” the caption under the post read. “I am so proud of how hard you fought. I love you.”
Towle, a 2022 graduate of Dartmouth, was living in Los Angeles the following year and was posting bikini selfies and trending dances online, the Times reported. But a bulge and burning sensation in her stomach caused her to go to an urgent care center.
In a November 2024 interview with “Today,” Towle said she originally believed she was suffering from a hernia.
“The doctor thought I had a hernia, but he was like, ‘I’ll send you in for an ultrasound, just in case,’” Towle told the news outlet. “I got an ultrasound, and it showed a solid mass.”
Towle was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare cancer of the bile ducts.
According to the Mayo Clinic, cholangiocarcinoma normally strikes people older than 50, “though it can occur at any age.”
Towle turned her medical condition into internet content. Her audience, which grew to more than 1 million followers, shared the highs and lows of living with stage 4 cholangiocarcinoma, USA Today reported.
Towle created videos that showed her hiking in Spain, but also sharing her loneliness and wrapping her head in ice to stop hair loss from chemotherapy treatments, according to the Times.
Towle had surgery to remove her gall bladder and part of her liver, and once she was medically cleared, she embarked on a solo trip to Europe -- all the time, recording videos and posting them online.
“Syd had a keen sense of how sharing her life could help others, and she used that to promote understanding of young adults facing cancer, the importance of research funding and the beauty of living life in the moment,” Melinda Bachini, the chief patient officer of the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation, told the Times in an interview.
While many of Towle’s videos were upbeat, she also posted sobering talks about fighting for your life. She said that dating would not be on the table for her.
“How do you make small talk about what you’ve been up to,” she said, “when what you’ve been up to is going to chemotherapy?”
During the fall of 2024, after a recurrence of the cancer in her liver, Towle moved to New York for treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Times reported.
Sydney Elizabeth Towle was born on Nov. 15, 1999, according to the newspaper.
She majored in government and environmental studies at Dartmouth.
In addition to her mother, Elizabeth Morrow Towle, she is survived by her brother, Austin Towle. Her father, Philip Towle, died in 2016. according to the Times.
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