22-year-old TikTok star dies after documenting her battle with a rare form of cancer

A 22-year-old TikTok star from England who gained an immense following as she documented her battle with a rare form of cancer has died.

According to the BBC, Leah Smith, from Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool, died Monday from Ewing Sarcoma, a type of bone or soft tissue cancer that primarily occurs in children and young adults.

Smith has over 530,000 followers on TikTok, where she would post videos about her day-to-day life with the disease.

Smith's boyfriend, Andrew Moore, posted a video to her TikTok account Tuesday sharing the news with her followers. The video has gotten over 800,000 likes since being posted on the social media platform.

The video has also been commented on over 60,000 times, with many showing support and passing along condolences to Smith's family and loved ones.

According to the BBC, Smith had complained of back pain about 10 months before her diagnosis, but it was not until she lost feeling in her left leg that she knew something was wrong.

What is Ewing sarcoma?

According to the Mayo Clinic, Ewing sarcoma is a type of cancer that begins as a growth of cells in the bones and the soft tissues around the bones. It mostly happens in children and young adults, although it can happen at any age.

The clinic says Ewing sarcoma most often begins in the leg bones and in the pelvis, but it can happen in any bone and less often, it starts in the soft tissues of the chest, abdomen, arms or other locations.

Some symptoms of the disease might include a lump in the arm, leg, chest or pelvis, or a break in a bone. Other symptoms can also include fever and losing weight without trying, according to the Mayo Clinic.

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, Ewing sarcoma is the second-most common type of bone cancer affecting children and young adults, as it accounts for about 1 percent of childhood cancers.