AN INFLUENCER who had been fighting cancer for 11 years has sadly lost her battle with the disease.
Andreea Anița, 27, had documented her journey online for years after being first diagnosed with cancer as a teen.
The Romanian social media star first noticed pain in her knee at the tender age of 16.
She was then diagnosed with synovial sarcoma – a rare and aggressive form of cancer.
Sadly, she passed away in hospital on March 3 after battling the disease for over a decade.
She had been intubated with a guarded prognosis after contracting a dangerous bacterium.
In the end, fighting both the cancer and the infection left her with no chance.
Her life was marked by frequent and exhausting journeys between her hometown of Fălticeni, Romania, and oncology hospitals as far away as Bucharest.
Despite treatment, the cancer spread to her lungs and groin.
She later underwent lung surgery and had a leg amputated in a desperate bid to stay alive.
Andreea had hoped to travel to the US for an innovative treatment only available there.
After an online appeal, good Samaritans raised £1.7m in just eight days in a bid to make it happen.
In her final Facebook post on January 22, she wrote from her Bucharest hospital bed: “I’ve been admitted here because, after my last round of chemotherapy, my lungs became inflamed.
“At the moment I’m being treated with antibiotics and need oxygen, and it’s hard for me to breathe on my own.
“I’m not able to be active in the comments or post updates right now. But I know you’re all with me, and that you’re waiting anxiously for the moment when I’ll be able to tell you that I’ve taken off.”
However, Andreea never made it to America.
Her mother Veronica – who turned 57 on the day her daughter died – wrote online: “I know you will watch over us from heaven, and I want you to know that although you broke our hearts by leaving for heaven to sing among the angels, we now know that you are no longer suffering and that you have finally found peace.”
Police officer Daniel Ceclan, who coordinated the fundraising effort, added: “Andreea Anița was more than a fighter.
“She was a light that kept burning, even when the pain was stronger than hope.
“For 11 years she faced cancer with a strength that amazed doctors, friends, and even people who had never met her but still came to care for her deeply.”
