Beauty, fashion and mom vlogger Jessica Pettway has died of cervical cancer at age 36.
His sister Reyni announced the news on Instagram, per Hey! Online. “Today is my birthday, and my only wish is for God to bring you back to this world. I lost my beautiful big sister 2 days ago, and my heart never felt pain like this,” Reyni wrote under the photo of the two of them. Reyni remembered her sister as “amazing, strong, confident” and someone who “had so much wisdom, prayed for me, and helped me be a better mother.”
Pettway shares daughters, 10-year-old Kailee and 3-year-old Zoi Lee, with her husband, Michael, of 12 years. The mother of two made headlines last year when she opened up about multiple misdiagnoses of uterine fibroids between July 2022 and January 2023 which eventually led to a stage 3 cervical cancer diagnosis in July 2023.
“On Feb. 8, 2023, he performed an outpatient biopsy on me. When I woke up from the anesthesia, he suddenly said, ‘Yep you have stage 3 cervical cancer.’ It turns out, it is not a fibroid, but cancer. I was misdiagnosed all this time,” Pettway wrote in a post describing his medical journey.
“I remember hearing that and immediately saying to myself, ‘I refuse to make a deal with that diagnosis.’ And so I didn’t. Being told I had cancer didn’t break me. That’s the reaction of those close to me,” she continued.
Many people in the comments were quick to call out the “breakdown” of a medical system that continues to neglect, misrepresent or ignore the concerns of Black women. “No one did imaging, or pap smears for initial visits/concerns. I just want to cry so hard for this as a black woman myself,” wrote one comment. “The medical establishment needs a complete overhaul. This cookie cutter care they often give to BW is killing us,” added another. “It’s absolutely horrible. A preventable death of a wonderful person,” wrote another.
Despite his sad diagnosis, Pettway remained positive, posting about how his family experienced his illness in August 2023. “Any time you’re dealing with an illness, it doesn’t just affect you, it changes you. it is also the life of those closest to you. This man shook our world. From countless hospital stays. In financial strain. We went through everything,” she wrote.
When she described the pain of seeing her daughters worry about her to her husband who helped her through her illness, she shared her story, thanking her family, unconditional love and her faith.
“This photo makes me smile, because I see the individual happiness on each of our faces,” she captioned the photo of her family of four. “There are so many new changes happening in my life, and it’s a little scary. But I prayed about it and as long as I follow God and hold on to my family, the blessing we are waiting for, will explode in our minds!”
