Beauty YouTuber Jessica Pettway passed away all of a sudden on March 11 following a stage 3 cervical cancer diagnosis. She was just 36.
Her sister Reyni Brown announced Jessica’s death on Friday, March 15 through social media.
“It’s my birthday today, and the only stuff I could ever wish for is for God to bring you back on this earth,” Reyni wrote in a post on Instagram alongside a photo of herself and Jessica. “I lost my beautiful big sister 2 days ago and my heart has never felt pain like this.”
Reyni went on to say her sister was “the most amazing, strong, confident” woman she had ever encounter and filled her life “with so much wisdom, prayed for me, and helped me become a better mother.”
She included, “Life will never be the same without her crazy laugh, pranks, or jokes. Loosing [sic] a sibling feels like a soul bond between us was ruined. I love you with all my heart.”
Jessica shared her cancer diagnosis with her 149,000 Instagram followers last July. She said doctors initially misdiagnosed her with uterine fibroids.
Fibroids are non-cancerous tumors that grow in the lining of the uterus.
Jessica first experienced abnormally heavy vaginal bleeding in June 2022.
“Last June, I was having intense vaginal bleeding. And when I say intense, I mean I was truly bleeding out,” she wrote in an Instagram post on July 31, 2023. “I called around and questioned other women if they ever faced this before and majority of them said they have. I thought, well maybe this is a ‘normal’ thing that women go through.”
Jessica continued:
“I was facing extreme fatigue, weakness and just not feeling like myself. But again, I accepted this as a ‘normal’ symptom that most women go through.
“Well, on July 1st 2022 at 4am, my spouse found me in the bathroom unresponsive and not breathing. I had literally died. He called on Jesus to bring me back and I came back. I was quickly went to the hospital, where they told me that the extreme blood loss was due to ‘fibroids.’”
When her symptoms worsened, she was correctly diagnosed with cancer of the cervix in February 2023.
“Being told I have cancer didn’t devastate me,” she said in an Instagram post at the time. “It was the reaction of those close to me. I knew that God is my healer and that no weapon formed against me, not even cancer, would prosper. I knew that I am more than a conqueror and that I will get via this.”
As per to the American Cancer Society, cervical cancer rates in women ages 30-44 have increased 1.7% each year from 2012 to 2019.