"Emilie is trying her best to be there for her surviving son, two-month-old Theodore.”
Anna Grace Phelan, a 19-year-old TikToker, has died after a short battle with brain cancer.
The Georgia-based influencer, who was born in Florida, passed away on Friday, May 23, less than nine months after revealing that she was diagnosed with an inoperable Grade 4 malignant brain tumor.
The diagnosis came just a few days before she was set to start her freshman year of college.
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“September 5th is forever going to be one of the hardest days of my life,” she wrote in a Sept. 5 TikTok caption. “Finding out I had a grade 4 cancerous tumor was not expected by me at all.”
On Saturday, May 24, Phelan’s family announced her death in a post on her TikTok account.
"It is with great sadness to announce that our beautiful daughter, Anna Grace Phelan, went home to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," the post read.
"Thank you for the countless thousands of prayers for healing and peace," the post continued. "May we all rejoice with the assurance that she is in Heaven now, and she has been healed.”
According to her obituary, Phelan graduated Jefferson High School in 2024 and worked as a receptionist at Georgia Skin Cancer and Aesthetic Dermatology.
She was also a beloved member of the Galilee Christian Church.
Phelan is survived by her parents, William Harper Phelan III and Nadine Elizabeth Turner Phelan, her brother, Harper David Phelan, her grandparents and a host of aunts, uncles and cousins.
A visitation will be held at the Galilee Christian Church on Thursday, May 29, followed by a funeral service, which will be livestreamed on the church’s official YouTube channel.
She will be buried later that day at the Galilee Christian Church Cemetery.
Instead of flowers, the family is asking fans, friends and family members to send donations to The Pediatric Brian Tumor Foundation.
Phelan documented her brain cancer journey on TikTok
On Aug. 27, Phelan took to TikTok to open up about her medical journey for the first time.
In the video, she revealed that she started experiencing numbness in the left side of her face and right side of her leg several weeks prior following a meningitis shot. Her doctors thought it could be Bell’s palsy.
An MRI several days later showed a lesion in her brain, but her doctors weren’t convinced it was a tumor.
Phelan had a second MRI done after a spinal tap and blood work both came back negative. When the MRI showed that the lesion was growing, her neurosurgeon recommended undergoing a brain biopsy.
@phelann.annaa I wanted to share this with everyone who has been wondering and hopefully this will help someone going through medical challenges as well #fypp #godisgood #medicaltiktok ♬ I Wanna Know Jesus - Josué Novais Piano Worship
“I’m really just trying to look on the bright side and keep my head up, and just keep looking for the best case possible,” she said in the video as she continued to recover from the biopsy.
Phelan’s results came one week later — when she was diagnosed with a Grade 4 malignant brain tumor.
In a GoFundMe, created on Sept. 13, Phelan’s friends clarified that her tumor was “categorized as a diffuse midline glioma.”
@phelann.annaa september 5th is forever going to be one of the hardest days of my life. finding out i had a grade 4 cancerous tumor was not expected by me at all. please continue to pray as I follow through god’s plan for me!! #fyp #braincancer ♬ Boundless Worship - Josué Novais Piano Worship
According to the Boston Children’s Hospital, a diffuse midline glioma is “an aggressive type of brain tumor” that “occurs in the midline locations of the central nervous system.” They mainly affect children.
Phelan continued to document her brain cancer journey on TikTok over the next nine months.
On May 14, she took to TikTok to reveal that her tumor had grown and was “in the area where I can’t breathe.” She asked her followers to keep her in their prayers and thanked everyone for their support.
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She posted her final TikTok on May 15, roughly one week before her death.
