Social media content creator Sydney Towle, who documented her life with a rare and aggressive cancer while maintaining an optimistic public outlook, has died at the age of 26, her family has announced.
In a video posted on her TikTok account, her mother, Elizabeth Morrow, and brother, Austin Towle, said she died peacefully on Wednesday after what they described as an almost three-year battle with cholangiocarcinoma, a cancer of the bile ducts diagnosed in August 2023.
Towle had built a significant online following before her diagnosis, sharing videos of her everyday life, including surfing, running and time spent outdoors. After learning she had cancer at the age of 23, she began posting candid updates about her treatment and hospital visits alongside moments with friends and family. Her TikTok account attracted more than one million followers, many of whom were drawn to her openness and resilience.
In one of her first videos after receiving the diagnosis, Towle said she remained in good spirits and that the illness had made her appreciate life more. That message became central to her online presence, which mixed footage from chemotherapy appointments with scenes of travel, exercise and social activities. Earlier this year, her mother wrote that Towle had become “a beacon of hope” for many people facing their own health challenges through her willingness to share her experience publicly.
Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on 15 November 1999, Towle grew up in Hobe Sound, Florida. According to the New York Times, she died at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. She graduated from Dartmouth College in 2022 with degrees in government and environmental studies and later worked as a social media manager at Epic Games. Towle had recently announced plans to run the 2026 New York City Marathon to raise funds for the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation and had already raised more than $10,000 for the organisation.
