Robyn Higgins

Robyn Genavieve Higgins (19 March 2002 - 29 September 2013) was a British Internet celebrity known for her Instagram page "@robyngenavievex" and her YouTube channel "RobynGenavievex" that featured her makeup tutorials and sometimes cancer vlogs. Her channel was mainly dedicated to makeup and cancer vlogs where she would discuss neuroblastoma, the disease she battled for four years. At the time of her death, her channel had more than 2,000 subscribers and 27,000 Instagram followers. Since then, her Instagram has surpassed 35,000 followers.
Early life
Robyn Higgins was born on 19 March 2002 in London, UK and grew up with her mother, Lisa and her father, Greg.
Diagnosis
When she was 7 years old, she began experiencing intense pain in her legs. When an X-ray on May 9, 2009 showed unusual anatomical displacements in her leg and chest, she was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer. To date she has endured 9 rounds of chemotherapy, a very painful stem cell harvest, a 9 hour surgery to remove the very large primary tumour from her pelvis (rendering her unable to walk for 7 months), high dose chemo to eradicate her bone marrow followed by a stem cell transplant and then 15 rounds of radiotherapy. The next and what should have been the final stage of Higgins’ journey took her to Philadelphia in the US where a huge fundraising drive allowed her to receive Immunotherapy together with a drug called Accutane. The aim of this therapy was to remove any cancer cells that cause massive rates of relapse in Neuroblastoma.
A year after completing treatment, routine scans showed that Higgins had relapsed. Fortunately, she responded really well to three cycles of salvage chemotherapy but unfortunately in the UK, there are no relapse studies for Neuroblastoma. In Philadelphia (and in various institutions within North America) there are real options for Robyn and other children like her.
Media attention and rise to fame
In 2012, Higgins created a Youtube channel where she posts videos about makeup and cancer vlogs where she talks about chemotherapy. At a hospital in Philadelphia, where she was receiving treatment, she bonded with another internet celebrity Talia Castellano and they quickly became friends. Robyn and Talia went to Disney Land together (Talia Castellano posted a vlog about it on her YouTube channel "@taliajoy18").
Death
Higgins died on 29 September 2013 at 12:33am from metastatic neuroblastoma. Her death was announced on her Instagram page.

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