Yahoo Lifestyle TikTok Star Maddy Baloy Dead at 26 After Difficult Medical Battle
Maddy Baloy
Maddy Baloy, a cancer patient who went viral on TikTok for her candid videos about her stage 4 diagnosis, has died. She was just 26.
The TikToker's fiancé, Louis Risher, confirmed her passing to People on Thursday, May 2, sharing that the young woman, who worked as a kindergarten teacher prior to her illness, died "peacefully" the previous evening, on his 27th birthday.
"I was holding her hand all day and that’s all I needed," he said, assuring any followers that she was "surrounded with love."
Baloy was diagnosed with a metastatic cancer of unknown origin in Feb. 2023, after suffering "random belly pains" for months. "[They] turned normal SO quick that i thought they were normal!" she wrote on Instagram on March 2, explaining that she began having an "intense cramp" that lasted for about 10-20 seconds every five minutes or so. "[Because] i could always get through my days with my pain, i didn’t think they were a big deal!" she continued.
She later told People she attempted several dietary changes to solve the problem, but eventually, she noticed she'd lost a significant amount of weight without trying. One day, she felt so ill she had to turn the lights off and put on a movie for her students to watch. Thinking she was suffering a stomach bug, she went to urgent care for anti-nausea meds and was told her symptoms sounded like cancer.
Her CT scan "lit up," showing a large mass in her large intestine in addition to several other tumors. She was given up to five years to live, at the time, but when speaking to the publication in March of 2024, she admitted, “I've been told several times that just based on my X-rays, I should be dead right now."
She launched a bucket list on TikTok, and one of the final items she got to cross off—if not the last—was to meet Gordon Ramsay, who flew her out to Miami to his Hell's Kitchen restaurant. He also brought her as his special guest at the opening night of his new restaurant Lucky Cat.
Baloy called it "the biggest honor and coolest night of my whole entire life."
According to People, Ramsay offered to handle the food at her wedding, another item on her bucket list, but, unfortunately, it couldn't come to fruition in time.
Baloy's final TikTok was posted on March 5, 2024, where she gave followers a rundown of her cancer journey from an Airbnb in Kyoto, Japan, revealing that her cancer was "basically [in] the entire lower half of [her] body," including both intestines, colon, uterus, and ovaries.
Over a year ago she received a colostomy as a result and hadn't been able to take a bath since. After she had it placed "[she] just kind of figured that [she'd] never take a bath again," but the Airbnb had the "most beautiful bath [she's] ever seen."
Knowing she was in Japan for "a very limited amount of time"—and on Earth for "a very limited amount of time"—she decided to go for it.
"I hope, in your life, you get to take a thousand baths," she wrote before the video ended. "But in my life, I think this one can be enough."
In addition to her fiancé, Baloy is survived by her mother, Carissa Talmege, 47, and her stepfather, Lucky Talmege, 45.
