Dr. Kimberley Nix Dies: Popular Social Media Personality Shared Her Cancer Journey, Was 31

Dr. Kimberley Nix, who chronicled her three-year battle with metastatic sarcoma on TikTok and Instagram, died on Wednesday, May 8 at age 31.

The Calgary, Alberta resident began documenting her cancer journey on Instagram and TikTok in 2021. Dr. Nix was just 28 years old at the time, and in her third and final year of her internal medicine core residency.

Her account grew to more than 137,000 followers, and some TikTok videos reached more than a million people.

“I only have one thing in my life that is tough or hard right now,” she said in a People interview. “Yes, it is serious, but [it’s] just one thing. Life is so much more. It’s friends, family, pets, your career, the perfect temperature first sip of tea, the beautiful snow-tipped mountains.”

She continued, “So many people go through so much more with so much less to be thankful for. Seeing the beautiful parts of life each day helps me stay grounded and focused on what’s most important to me, and keep pressing forward with more treatment.”

Dr. Nix was initially diagnosed with extra-skeletal osteosarcoma. She later found out she actually had undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma, as “having an evolving diagnosis is common in sarcoma because there are over 100 subtypes,” she said.

“Symptoms of sarcoma are so important because there is no screening test. My symptom was the most common symptom in soft tissue sarcoma. [Everything was] completely normal — including all my lab values — except for a small, but rapidly growing lump in my left leg,” she said.

“Mine changed rapidly, which led me to see my doctor right away. It went from the size of a pea to the size of a golf ball in just over a week,” she continued, adding how she took a chemotherapy pill every day for treatment.

The day she died, Dr. Nix posted one last video to her account, which has now reached more than 4.6 million people.

“Hello followers, if you’re seeing this message I have passed away peacefully. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Kim, hi! It’s so nice to meet you and you’re welcome to check out all the cool sarcoma facts, information and my lived experience with death and dying with sarcoma cancer. You don’t have to go just because you’re new.”

She continued, “I love you all, thank you so much for this amazing opportunity. I’m in happy tears because you’ve all made me find so much purpose in the end of my life.”

@cancerpatientmd

My journey here is over and i cant thank each and every one of you enough! You have all made me so happy and your comments and support are more than enough to have gotten anyone thriugh anything! If you wish, Please donate through my link in bio to sarcoma cancer research and follow my husband in his updates @LightestCheese 💕 #death #dying #palliative #sarcoma #undifferentiatedpleomorphicsarcoma #cancer #cancerpatient #md #resident #medschool

♬ original sound – Cancer Patient, MD

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