British blogger Charlie Anderson-Read has died following a years-long battle with cancer, announcing her own death on social media with a pre-recorded video.
Anderson-Read, 41, was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer at age 38. She was later told she had a bile duct cancer called cholangiocarcinoma.
She went on to document her cancer journey on social media, signing off on October 10 with a final message she’d recorded before her passing.
“At 7:30 this morning, Charlie passed,” reads the beginning of the clip. “She is now at peace. A few weeks ago, Charlie recorded a video to share with you all after her death.”
In a message now viewed 2.6 million times, Anderson-Read — who leaves behind a wife, Louise, and their four-year-old daughter, Florence — began, “If you are watching this video, I am, unfortunately, no longer here.”
“No, I haven’t kind of posted it from a different world,” she went on. “Someone has kindly posted this on my behalf, so thank you. I just wanted to say thank you to all of you guys.
“All of your messages and kind words have really helped me through what’s been a very difficult time. A lot of you have donated money to help out Louise and Florence for when I am no longer here and for that I’ll be forever grateful.
“I hope through this being such a terrible situation for me, I hope that some of these videos have helped out at least some people.
“And through this whole ordeal, I have only come across people being kind to me, generous to me and it’s just shown me how much good there is in the world. I hope you guys can see it all now.
“Any type of disease, terminal or whatever, is just absolutely awful and I can only imagine what it’s been like for my friends and family and to people that have never met me, how hard it’s been to watch my journey.”
She continued on to share her gratitide.
“I’m so grateful for the life that I’ve led. I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever,” she added. “The only thing is I wish I’d stayed with my family for longer and seen Florence grow up. There are things like that that I wish I was here for, many thing I’ll miss. But there’s so much that I’ve experienced and I’ve been so lucky to have these extra two-and-a-half years.”
“So, for the last time, take care everybody. I wish you all well. Keep fighting — don’t let my passing have any negative effect on people, or on you. Keep fighting, you’ve got this,” she said.
Anderson-Read had been candid in documenting her experience with cancer, including sharing information to help others.
In December of 2023, she detailed her initial symptoms — which she said she hadn’t realized were symptoms at the time.
First, she said, after a stressful situation at work, her appetite dwindled. She didn’t think much of it, she said, because her appetite had dipped with stress before — but it had always picked back up.
She then felt a “slight hardening in my left side, just below where my lungs are. It just felt like a hard muscle.”
“It was kind of a lump, but wasn’t really,” Anderson-Read said.
After going to the doctor and waiting for results from her bloodwork, she later started experiencing some jabbing pains in the area that she thought had to do with stress.
“It was quite painful to the point that I couldn’t stand up,” she said.
She saw a doctor. While waiting for results from bloodwork, she also experienced fatigue that she associated with work, stress and being a parent.
Early pancreatic cancer often doesn’t present symptoms, according to the American Cancer Society. However, early signs may include fatigue, jaundice, loss of appetite, back pain, nausea, vomiting and blood clots.
The third deadliest cancer, pancreatic cancer has been in the news thanks to a groundbreaking treatment that was approved by the FDA in late August.
Manufactured by Revolution Medicines, daraxonrasib, which will be sold under the brand name Rasonque, could double survival time for patients with pancreatic cancer.
“This is life-altering,” Dr. Carla Kurkjian, an oncologist at Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City, told the Wall Street Journal. “Not just for patients, as far as helping them extend their lives beyond anything we’d ever seen, but for us as physicians, to be able to have a different conversation than we’ve had for so long.”
Patients taking the drug had a median overall survival of 13.2 months compared to 6.7 months for the chemotherapy group. When trial findings were presented to cancer researchers last spring, WSJ reported, they were met with a standing ovation.
