A Canadian teen, who documented his cancer story and his journey to accomplish his bucket list on TikTok, has died at the age of 18.
According to his obituary, Harrison Gilks, who was from Fredericton, passed away on March 30 while being held by his mother, father, and brother. The news was then announced on his TikTok account, where he had gained a following of more than 300,000 people.
“I’m making this video because Harrison sadly passed away a few hours ago. He was not in pain when he passed away and he was with his family,” his brother said. “I just want to come on here and say thank you to everybody around the world for their support and encouragement. It really did mean a lot to him.”
Days before his passing, Harrison had posted his final update on the platform on March 21st. He had recorded a video from his hospital bed, in which he shared that despite having a wonderful time on a recent trip to Mexico with his loved ones, he faced some complications during the journey.
“I don’t know how to say it other than the cancer [has] spread,” he said. “I’ll be in the hospital for probably the remainder of whatever time I have left, which is obviously very upsetting.”
Before Harrison ended the video, he said “It’s been a great ride with you guys on the bucket list.”
According to CBC News, the teenager was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, an uncommon form of cancer that originates in the soft tissue and typically impacts children, in November 2020. In a statement, Harrison’s father said he had displayed signs of remission by February 2022. However, after a few months, they learned that his cancer had resurfaced and was deemed incurable.
