Elena Huelva: Spanish influencer, 20, dies from 'rare type of bone cancer'
MADRID, SPAIN: Social media influencer Elena Huelva from Spain died on Tuesday, January 3 after she battled with cancer for a long time. Before her death, the Seville native bid farewell to her nearly one million followers on Instagram.
Throughout her late teenage years, Huelva battled with Ewing sarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer that mainly affects young people and children. The 20-year-old was diagnosed with the condition in 2016 and her Instagram handle was maintained to document her medical journey. A few weeks ago on December 4, 2022, Huelva shared a health update via a heartbreaking video where she said her condition has worsened and that she was on end-of life-treatment.
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Sharing the tragic video, the influencer wrote on Instagram: "I wanted to drop this video here, because at the end of life is the memories we take, the people, the love, and I've already won. For love, for fight, for people, forever."
In the video, she was spotted with tubes attached to her airways and lying in a hospital bed, explaining her health status as she said: "They found more disease in my windpipe, which is very dangerous, as you know, because that's where we breathe."
Holding back her tears, Huelva said "I don't need to say much more. I want to make it clear that I've already won," and added the need to make this life-threatening disease a more visible issue as she said, "I know that my life was not in vain, because I fought and got what I wanted."
Fans and Spanish celebrities came together to offer their support to Huelva and the video received more than 970,000 likes and 90,000 comments. Spanish actress Ana Obregón, whose son died suffering from the same condition expressed her support in the comments along with celebrities including singer Manuel Carrasco and TV presenter Sara Carbonero.
The influencer was allowed to be in her home to spend Christmas with her parents Manuel and her 26-year-old sister Emi despite her worsening condition. Huelva, the writer of 'My desires win' mentioned the same title as her catchphrase to sign off her last post shared on Sunday. "Today I woke up not in the best way, in fact, nothing good, a big scare. These are very difficult days, they are becoming more and more complicated, but as you know I am stronger, and more complicated! I want you to know that I already won, a long time ago. We continue, always," she wrote in her final post on Instagram with a picture of her holding hands with her loved ones.
A family member of the late influencer shared an update on Instagram stories, after her death yesterday. The update showed a photo of Huelva and she captioned the photo saying, "Since this morning, Elena dances and looks down at you from her star. Thank you for everything."