TikToker Bella Bradford announces her own death in powerful last ...

5 Nov 2024

An Australian TikToker named Bella Bradford has shared a powerful last 'Get Ready With Me' in which she announces her own death. Bradford used her TikTok account to post fashion content as well as raise awareness for jaw cancer, a disease she was diagnosed with three years ago and which was sadly found to be terminal.

Bella Bradford - Figure 1
Photo cosmopolitan.com

Bella, who was just 24 at the time of her passing, pre-recorded the video from Sydney, sharing the news of her death. She also thanked her followers for their support during the final stages of her life.

Writing in the caption accompanying the video, Bella said, "Thank you for all your love and support throughout my final stages of life, I am so grateful. Filming these videos truly brought me a sense of purpose in my final few months and also connected me with a very kind community of people."

She added, "I wish you all a beautiful life and please remember to live each day with as much significance as the next. What a privilege it is to grow old. Thank you for allowing me to be myself on this platform, I really felt excited each day to jump on here and connect over our shared love of life and fashion."

In her final post, Bella tells viewers: "I'm really sad for you guys in this video, but as we all know I have terminal cancer and unfortunately my life by now has come to an end and I passed away, but I wanted to film one final 'get ready with me' as I love filming these and I love fashion."

She also shared her hopes that viewers would look back on her previous videos and find a little joy from them.

As well as sharing her love of clothes online, Bella spoke openly about her jaw cancer and shared the symptoms she experienced ahead of diagnosis in order to raise awareness. She also posted videos about how cancer impacted on her outlook on life.

In a skincare routine video, Bella said her initial symptoms led her to believe she was experiencing pain from her wisdom teeth. "My symptoms were pain in my mouth and because my tumour is in my jaw muscle, I thought it was my wisdom teeth and I hadn't had them removed yet, and there was kind of swelling in my mouth."

Bella then explained that she went on to have her wisdom teeth removed but the pain and swelling continued.

"They thought I had an infection from the original wisdom teeth surgery," she continued. "So, I went under again into another surgery, to 'clean out' the infection, and my surgeon found a white mass. He biopsied it [...] A week later, I'm flying to Adelaide from Sydney for Christmas, it was 20 December 2021, I had my bags packed and I go to this appointment on my own and basically, [the surgeon] sits me down and is like, 'You have this rare form of cancer and we don't know where it is in your body, you need to cancel your Christmas plans and stay in Sydney'."

In the UK, around 12,759 cases of head and neck cancers are diagnosed each year according to Cancer Research UK. Other symptoms can include:

A lump in the neck, face or mouth that doesn't disappearVoice changesPain and/or swellingChanges to your sense of smellNosebleedsA non-stop earache, often on one side

Our thoughts are with all of Bella's loved ones during this sad time.

 Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK's multiple award-winning Features Editor, who was crowned Digital Journalist of the Year for her work tackling the issues most important to young women. She regularly covers breaking news, cultural trends, health, the royals and more, using her esteemed connections to access the best experts along the way. She's grilled everyone from high-profile politicians to A-list celebrities, and has sensitively interviewed hundreds of people about their real life stories. In addition to this, Jennifer is widely known for her own undercover investigations and campaign work, which includes successfully petitioning the government for change around topics like abortion rights and image-based sexual abuse. Jennifer is also a published author, documentary consultant (helping to create BBC’s Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?) and a patron for Y.E.S. (a youth services charity). Alongside Cosmopolitan, Jennifer has written for The Times, Women’s Health, ELLE and numerous other publications, appeared on podcasts, and spoken on (and hosted) panels for the Women of the World Festival, the University of Manchester and more. In her spare time, Jennifer is a big fan of lipstick, leopard print and over-ordering at dinner. Follow Jennifer on Instagram, X or LinkedIn.

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