Photo: @JessicaPettway/Instagram
Beauty influencer Jessica Pettway died from complications of stage 3 cervical cancer, which she had publicly said she was initially misdiagnosed prior to her death.
Pettway, a mother of two, died last Wednesday (March 13), according to a now-private Instagram post shared by her sister, Reyni, last Friday (March 15).
“It’s my birthday today, and the only thing I could ever wish for is for God to bring you back on this earth,” Reyni wrote alongside a photo of herself with Jessica. “I lost my beautiful big sister 2 days ago and my heart has never felt pain like this.”
Pettway, who referred to herself as 'The Compton Bohemian,' publicly shared her cancer diagnosis on her Instagram account nine months prior to her death.
“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,” she wrote in July 2023.
Pettway said she experienced "intense vaginal bleeding" in June 2022 and was initially diagnosed with "fibroids," which are described by the Mayo Clinic as "common growths of the uterus" that are "not cancer, and they almost never turn into cancer." The bleeding, however, didn't stop, which led to several more hospitalizations and 10 blood transfusions before making an appointment with an oncologist to undergo a biopsy in February 2023.
“On Feb. 8th, 2023, he performed an outpatient biopsy on me,” Pettway revealed. “When I woke up from the anesthesia, he casually said, ‘Yep you have stage 3 cervical cancer.’ It turns out, it was not a fibroid, but cancer. I was misdiagnosed all this time.”
“I remember hearing that and immediately saying to myself, ‘I refuse to make an agreement with that diagnosis.’ And so I didn’t. Being told I have cancer didn’t devastate me. It was the reaction of those close to me,” she added.
Pettway is survived by Michael, her husband of 12 years, and their two daughters Kailee, 10, and Zoi Lee, 3.