Jessica Pettway, a popular beauty influencer and YouTube personality, lost her battle with stage 3 cervical cancer. The 36-year old wife and mother of two died on March 11 and her sister, Reyni Brown, shared the news on social media.
“It’s my birthday today, and the only thing I could ever wish for is for God to bring you back on this earth,” Brown wrote under an image of herself and Jessica. “I lost my beautiful big sister 2 days ago and my heart has never felt pain like this.”
She continued, praising her sister saying she was “the most amazing, strong, confident” woman she had ever met and filled her life “with so much wisdom, prayed for me, and helped me become a better mother.”
She concluded, “Life will never be the same without her crazy laugh, pranks, or jokes. Loosing [sic] a sibling feels like a connection between us was destroyed. I love you with all my heart.”
The news about Pettway’s cancer diagnosis wasn’t a shock to her avid followers. In July, the YouTuber shared it with her social media followers in a lengthy narration. Her doctors initially diagnosed her with fibroids in 2022 after ongoing bouts of intense vaginal bleeding, including an episode where she was found unresponsive in her bathroom after bleeding out. She wasn’t accurately diagnosed with cancer until February 2023.
“Being told I have cancer didn’t devastate me,” she said in an Instagram post at the time. “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.”
Pettway leaves behind her husband of 12 years in addition to her daughters: Kailee, 10, and Zoi Lee, 3.
In August 2023, The YouTuber shared how difficult it was to go through her illness and the toll it took on her family via Instagram.
“Gotta say, this was the toughest storm I have ever been through,” she wrote in the caption. “Yet we made a commitment that we would get through this together. My husband would carry me up the stairs, carry me to the bathroom, lift me out the tub. It was hard for him to see me in that state. And I was so embarrassed to have him see me in my new body. The weight loss just made me feel like a shell of myself. I didn’t want to be seen. But we held on to our vows and the word. We moved forward and did our best not to allow current circumstances to overtake us.”
It saddens us to hear of Pettway’s passing, and angers us to know of the inaccurate diagnosis that kept her from getting the treatment she needed, sooner. We send her family love and healing during this difficult time.
