Jessica Pettway, a prominent beauty, fashion and lifestyle YouTube influencer, died on 11 March at the age of 36, after being diagnosed with stage three cervical cancer. Her death came about nine months after she shared her cancer diagnosis with her followers. The mother of two said that she had first been misdiagnosed with fibroids – typically benign uterine tumors – before finding out in February 2023 that the tumors were malignant.
“It brings me so much joy to see how far I’ve come, because a few months ago I received devastating news,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “I was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. I don’t even know where to begin, but I want to share why I’ve been gone for so long, in hopes that at least one person is encouraged by my story.
Pettway said she began experiencing intense vaginal bleeding and extreme fatigue in June 2022, which she considered to be “a ‘normal’ thing that women go through”. But the following month, her husband found her unresponsive and not breathing in their bathroom.
Pettway said she was rushed to the hospital, where she was told the blood loss was due to fibroids, which develop in more than 80% of African American women by age 50. Her gynecologist, Pettway said, made her condition seem common, despite having Pettway stay overnight due to the size of the blood clots she was passing. Later that month, Pettway was hospitalized for the same issue, but, again, she said, “the medical professionals treated it like it was not that alarming since it was just a ‘fibroid’.”
Pettway’s symptoms worsened, and she was hospitalized again in January 2023. She said doctors told her she could not have surgery to remove her presumed fibroids because of her low blood supply. She received 10 blood transfusions during her hospital stay.
Finally, Pettway said, in February 2023, an oncologist performed an out-patient biopsy, and diagnosed her with stage 3 cervical cancer.
“It turns out, it was not a fibroid, but cancer,” she wrote. “I was misdiagnosed all this time.”
According to Pettway, though, the diagnosis was not the most difficult part.
“Being told I have cancer didn’t devastate me,” she wrote. “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 through this.”
After receiving her diagnosis, Pettway wrote that she “refuse(d) to make an agreement with that diagnosis”. She had had nearly 20 blood infusions, but 13 April, she wrote, was the last time she had been back to the hospital.
“Any time I felt my faith being attacked, I could hear God reminding me to LIVE,” she said. “And that is exactly what I am doing. I am living, because the One who gave life abundantly lives in me.”
According to the CDC, 58% of non-Hispanic Black women who are diagnosed with cervical cancer at an earlier stage live for five or more years. Hispanic, Indigenous and Black women have higher rates of new cervical cancer in the US, as compared with women of other races. The National Cancer Institute says that the survival rate of all people with cervical cancer is about 67%. Other than unusual vaginal bleeding, early cervical cancer typically has no symptoms.
Pettway joined YouTube over a decade ago in November 2013. Her account, on which she shared beauty videos and some details about her personal life, had nearly 230,000 subscribers.
