Photo: @zuzas_way_to_healing/Instagram
Influencer Zuza Beine, who gained millions of followers while documenting her near-lifelong battle with cancer, died at the age of 14 on Monday (September 22), her family confirmed in posts shared on her social media accounts.
"It is with broken hearts that we share that Zuza died yesterday morning," the family wrote. "She lived 11 of her 14 years with a relentless cancer, yet lived more fully and gratefully than most. Her being changed us forever, and her dying will too.
"It is no coincidence to us that the last video she made captures what she was grateful for—a testament to a life filled with both beauty and suffering. More than anything, she wanted to be a normal, healthy kid. But what made her life so beautiful was how she learned to face the hardest circumstances, like her disease, and still live fully."
Beine, a Wisconsin native, was diagnosed with the rare blood cancer acute myeloid leukemia at the age of 3 and had previously beaten her diagnosis five times before it returned once again. The teenager spent more than a decade undergoing serious treatments, which included several rounds of chemotherapy and three bone marrow transplants.
Beine recently shared a post stating that she'd felt particularly sick following a two-day hospital stay.
“Lately, my health has not been the best physically and mentally. I’ve been in so much pain lately. I’m constantly on pain medicine because my body hurts so, so so bad.”
Beine's family stated that she would have wanted all donations to go toward a GoFundMe aimed to support the wife and two young children of her uncle who also recently died.