Mackenzie Paul Dies At 26: TikToker McKenzie Paul from the United States, passed away after a three-year battle with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) at 26. The death was confirmed by her husband, Brandon Paul, in a 10-minute Facebook video shared on January 22, 2026. The social media post, which has drawn a lot of attention from the TikTok community and fans read a caption, "I love you so much, we will be together soon. Thank you for being my best friend forever and always."
Narrating the tragic demise of his wife, Brandon Paul opens the video stating, "As you know, or as most of you know, Kenzie is in heaven now. Selfishly, I wish she was here, still with me, and it's going to take the whole rest of my life to get over this. But the one thing I am really, really happy about is that she's not in pain anymore."
He added, "The past two and a half years, I've been blessed to be married to the best woman out there. I also had to see her go through some, some very, very tough times. She was pretty transparent when it came to social media. But there're some times where she was in the ICU and she was not breathing on her own, where, you know, none of us really shared. It was a miracle that she made it this far."
Mackenzie Paul was first diagnosed with cancer when she was 23 years old and a second-year medical student at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. In 2023, she told a leading media outlet that she saw the doctor after feeling dizzy during a clinical rotation. "Other than being more tired, I really didn't have any symptoms," she said. "My whole life I've been really healthy. I was a college athlete. But I remember looking at my labs and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, this is horrible.'"
Following labs and bloodwork done, the 26-year-old TikToker learn that she had AML on August 17, 2023. Since her diagnosis with cancer, the young TikToker has been open about her Acute Myeloid Leukaemia journey. At the time, Mackenzie Paul said, "I had no idea how truly challenging this journey would be," Mackenzie told People last year. "I believed I would undergo a stem cell transplant and then return to my life as a medical student. I never imagined that, more than two years later, I would still be fighting for my life, and now, for a miracle."
Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) is one of the most common types of cancer that is experienced by many adults. AML, also known as Acute Myelogenous Leukemia and Acute Nonlymphocytic Leukemia is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow that worsens dramatically when it is not timely intervened. "AML is caused by certain changes to the way blood stem cells function, especially how they grow and divide into new cells. A risk factor is anything that increases the chance of getting a disease," the National Institute of Health (NIH) explains. "Some risk factors for AML, like smoking, can be changed. However, risk factors also include things people cannot change, like their genetics, getting older, and their health history."
