In a final message to her friends and family, Melbourne resident Nicole Cooper said goodbye to her cancer.
She was 38 years old when she was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in March 2017. She revealed that her main symptoms were weight loss and fatigue.
After struggling with her illness for several months, she succumbed to the disease on January 10. In her final message, Nicole wrote a tribute to those who followed her story.
“When it comes to wrapping up, cancer is not the thing I want to sign out on,” she wrote.
“Because actually, the stuff that matters is the stuff that we have built together for each of us: the shared respect, joy, compelling and insightful commitment, and unwavering authenticity to the real nuts and bolts of being alive.
“It’s the fragility of this, the incomparable everythingness, the preparedness to take every risk for this group, to truly declare that living in my most scared and vulnerable and weak and wonderful was worth it all.
“Because I got to do it with all of you. That is the purpose of things. That is what I wrap up from.”
For almost five years, she fought the disease. Through her social media accounts, she was able to share her experience and improve the outcomes of other cancer patients. Despite her cancer returning in 2018, she continued to keep documenting her fight.
On Christmas Day, Nicole posted a photo of herself in the ICU, where she was admitted due to pneumonia. Her death left her community in a state of shock.