Maddy Baloy, a TikToker who captured the hearts of millions after documenting her life with terminal cancer online has died at the age of 26.
The Florida star, who posted candid videos and successfully pursued her bucket list dreams including meeting Gordon Ramsay, died Wednesday night, her fiancé said.
‘Madison passed away peacefully last night,’ Louis Risher told PEOPLE in a statement on Thursday, adding that she was ‘surrounded with love.’
‘She is so special,’ Risher said. ‘I turned 27 yesterday, actually. I was holding her hand all day and that’s all I needed.’
Baloy, from Tampa, started suffering with stomach issues in the summer of 2022, and she was later diagnosed with stage four colon cancer after vomiting blood.
Madison Baloy, from Tampa, Florida, was diagnosed with stage-four colon cancer after going to the ER for what she thought was a common stomach bug
Chef Gordon Ramsay helped her dreams come true by flying her out to his restaurant and cooking for her after she revealed it was a bucket list aspiration
But the 26-year-old turned the tragic situation into a positive by sharing her powerful journey on social media, attracting hundreds of thousands of followers.
She connected with some of her favorite celebrities including Gordon Ramsay and Taylor Lautner as she pursued her ‘bucket list’.
Her final TikTok
Following her diagnosis, Baloy made her first cancer TikTok to share the 19 things she was in a ‘hurry to finish.’
She said: ‘Hi, my name is Madison. I have stage-four terminal cancer and this is in my bucket list. I’m in a hurry to finish it.’
Coming in at number one, Madison said she wanted to ‘see everything.’
She also revealed that she wanted to party in a DJ booth, learn how to roll a joint, have a wedding, get a tattoo with her grandma, sleep under a willow tree, be a podcast guest, and meet Gordon.
In response to her clip, the 57-year-old chef said he would love to meet Madison, but didn’t want it to be any regular meet and greet.
He said: ‘First of all, I’d like to fly you down to Miami, have dinner with you and your friends in Hell’s Kitchen and then the following night, Friday night, you’ll be our special guest at the opening of our new restaurant, Lucky Cat, in South Beach.’
Following their meet and greet, the chef added: ‘I hope you had the best time @madison in Miami! It was such an honor for you to be my VVIP last night at #LuckyCat! Thanks to everyone on TikTok too for helping making sure these dreams come true.’
Baloy began feeling symptoms last year while at a music festival with her friends.
Baloy, from Tampa, started suffering with stomach issues in the summer of 2022, and she was later diagnosed with stage four colon cancer after vomiting blood
Her stomach pain, nausea and exhaustion quickly became too much, and she went to urgent care
She tried to convince herself it wasn’t anything serious and chalked it up to IBS or Crohn’s.
Her stomach pain, nausea and exhaustion quickly became too much, and she went to urgent care.
However, while there, a nurse informed her that all of her symptoms indicated she had cancer and suggested she go to an ER.
It was there that they diagnosed her with stage-four colon cancer.
She told USA Today that after receiving her diagnosis, she took to TikTok to find other people in her position and in hopes of reminding people who she was.
‘I was really scared that people were only going to see me for cancer and forget who I was,’ she said.
She noted that she wanted to tell the world she was still very much a ‘person’ and began documenting a day in her life online.
Madison said that she had come to terms with the possibility of having cancer forever and was trying to make the best of the time she had.
She said: ‘Whether I only live five years or if somehow I live 70 years, I will, at some point die with cancer in my body still.’