Stars have paid tribute to Charlie Anderson-Read after the inspirational blogger announced her own death in a video. The much-loved social media personality lost her three-year battle with aggressive cancer. It has been confirmed that she passed away on Sunday.
Three-year cancer battle
Charlie built up a huge following by documenting her heartbreaking journey online after being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer aged just 38. She was then re-diagnosed with terminal Cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of bile duct cancer, just three weeks after she lost her dad to kidney cancer.
Initially, Charlie was told she had just six weeks to live, but she battled on for another three years. Charlie, 41, is survived by her heartbroken wife Louise and their four-year-old daughter, Florence.
Final video message
The news was shared with fans via a pre-recorded final video from Charlie herself, which was shared just five hours after she died. During the emotional video, Charlie thanked her followers for all their support and love over the years.
The video began with a note from her devastated family which read: "At 7.30 this morning, Charlie passed. She is now at peace. A few weeks ago, Charlie recorded a video to share with you all after her death."
It then cut to Charlie saying: "If you are watching this video, I am, unfortunately, no longer here. No, I haven’t kind of posted it from a different world. Someone has kindly posted this on my behalf, so thank you. I just wanted to say thank you to all of you guys."
She added: "All of your messages and kind words have really helped me through what's been a very difficult time. A lot of you have donated money to help out Louise and Florence for when I am no longer here and for that I'll be forever grateful.
"I hope through this being such a terrible situation for me, I hope that some of these videos have helped out at least some people. And through this whole ordeal, I have only come across people being kind to me, generous to me and it's just shown me how much good there is in the world. I hope you guys can see it all now."
Tributes from stars
Zoe Ball, Alexandra Burke and Carrie Johnson all offered words following the news. Underneath the clip, Zoe wrote: "All love to her. and her dear ones." Alice Evans also wanted to offer a tribute and said: "Oh God I’ve been dreading this. I’ve grown to love Charlie’s updates so much. Louise you are so brave this is an impossible time for you. Sending all the love in the world. Alice x."
Charlie continued in the video: "Any type of disease, terminal or whatever, is just absolutely awful and I can only imagine what it's been like for my friends and family and to people that have never met me, how hard it's been to watch my journey. There's so much I want to say but the words, I guess, I just can't find them, but I am so grateful for the life that I've led.
"I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever. There's nothing that I wish I'd done more, the only things are obviously I wished I had stayed with my family for longer and seen Florence grow up."
Growing more emotional, Charlie added: "There are things like that, that obviously I wish I was here for. There are many things that I will miss. But there's so much that I've experienced and I've been very lucky to have these extra two and a half years. Longer than that. For that, as well, I am eternally grateful. I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you to you guys. Such a lovely community.
"So for the last time, take care everybody. I wish you all well. Keep fighting. Don't let my passing have any negative effect on people or on you. So all the best, keep fighting. You've got this. And I'll see you. Bye."
