Natalie Fornasier - a beloved writer and influencer from Australia - has died at the age of 28 following a battle with melanoma.
The Sydney native has spent the last few years documenting her tens of thousands of social media followers on her health after she was diagnosed with stage three metastatic melanoma when she was just 20 years old.
Her death was confirmed by the Sydney Morning Herald.
Fornasier received her terminal diagnosis after she realized a mole on her toe had changed shape. In a message to her followers back in 2020, Fornasier wrote: "All it took was one mole to drastically catapult me into a club that no one wants to be a part of.
"It changed everything. It uprooted any sense of self understanding I owned.
"Daily, I grapple with anxiety and depression. Weekly, I wake up from nightmares with sweat soaked bed-sheets because I dream about dying. Surviving, I’ve found, is exhausting and if you’re lucky to do so, you do it with a blank mind and endless questioning of your worthiness. There’s forever a hope that you could feel healthy once more, but couple that with the fear that your body will one day let you down and it’s your own fault for dying… you feel like you’re drowning."
Tragically, in July 2022, Fornasier received the news that her cancer had become terminal.
Revealing the heartbreaking news in a post last month, she wrote: "Every day for the past four months I’ve cried and screamed. I’ve fallen into oblivion crying for Alexander, the heartbreak, and the love I would be leaving - for the life we were supposed to have.
"I’ve cried for my family. I’ve cried myself hoarse about the fear of death. I’ve screamed for the children I would never have, the growing old, my friends, the life I was supposed to live.
"It’s not easy to admit that I’m dying. At 28 years old… everything about it feels wrong. The conversations I’ve had to have, the plans I’ve had to make, the places my thoughts have gone and are still going - none of it is natural. It’s painful."
In the post, she thanked her thousands of followers for their support, which she said "meant the world" to her and that she'd "never been more grateful" for her "little community".
She ended her post with a final message to her followers, saying: "Maybe because in staring down death every day for the past eight years – I’ve been forced to know that life - every single minute of it - is borrowed time. So let me leave you with this: live EVERY DAY. And just love as much as you can."
A GoFundMe was launched prior to Fornasier's death for "future funeral expenses" and living expenses for Fornasier's husband "as he grieves and to remove any additional financial worries".
The couple married back in November at a palliative care facility. In response, Fornasier wrote on Instagram that it didn't matter that their wedding wasn't in Italy "as once dreamed", because "love is all that matters".
As of this writing, more than $116,000 (AUD) has been raised by kind donations.
Our thoughts are with Fornasier's family, friends, and followers at this time.
For more information about melanoma, you can visit the NHS website, here.