Boxer dies at 25 after battling with doctors for months over diagnosis
British boxer Georgia O'Connor fought to the very end, ultimately losing her battle with a 'rare and aggressive' form of cancer that she said doctors ignored for months.
She was 25 years old.
O'Connor, a medal-winning boxer from Durham, England, shared her diagnosis earlier this year while tearing into the English medical system (NHS) and the doctors who overlooked her concerns.
In an Instagram post, she shared that she had been diagnosed with cancer after weeks of debilitating pain, and claimed her concerns went ignored by doctors for four months.
'For 17 weeks since the start of October, I've been in constant pain, going back and forth between Durham and Newcastle RVI A&E knowing deep down something was seriously wrong,' O'Connor wrote on Jan. 31. 'I said from the start I felt it was cancer. I KNEW the risks. I have colitis and PSC, two diseases that dramatically increase the chances of getting it. I KNOW how high my risk is and they do too. They always did.
'But not one doctor f***ing listened to me. Not one doctor took me seriously. Not one doctor did the scans or blood tests I begged for whilst crying on the floor in agony. Instead, they dismissed me. They gaslit me, told me it was nothing, made me feel like I was overreacting. They refused to scan me. They refused to investigate. They REFUSED to listen. One even told me that it's 'all in my head.' And now? Now the cancer has spread.'
'And if that wasn't enough, throughout this whole time there's been BLOOD CLOTS all over my lungs. That ALONE could have killed me instantly.
'They could have done something before it got to this stage. But they didn't. Because this is the state of the NHS — a broken system that fails young people like me over and over again. A system that makes people suffer, that sends them home in agony, that lets cancer spread whilst the thick, stupid, mindless 'doctors' shrug their shoulders.'
In the post, she vowed to win her battle with cancer before firing more shots at those who let her down.
'F*** the doctors who failed me,' she wrote. 'F*** the system that let this happen.'
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O'Connor's death comes less than two weeks after she had married her partner, Adriano.
The fighter had shared a snap from their special day, showing off their wedding rings.
''09.05.2025. The day I married the love of my life,' O'Connor captioned the Instagram photo, which would be her final post on the social media platform.
In past Instagram posts, she praised Adriano for his love and support throughout her battle with cancer.
'From the moment I was diagnosed with cancer, Adriano didn't hesitate. He quit his job without a second thought and made it his mission to fight this battle alongside me. Not just by my side, but leading the charge, doing everything in his power to save me,' she wrote on Feb. 3.
'Adriano, you are my superhero. My warrior, my protector, my soulmate. I have no words strong enough to explain what you mean to me; how much I love you, how much I thank you, how much I need you. You are my safe place. My home. I could search the world a thousand times over and never find another man like you.
'Everything we've been through, we go through together. Every fight, every battle, every victory. We take it all, hand in hand. And we will win. My real-life prince. My reason. My forever.'
During her amateur in-ring career, O'Connor won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2017 as well as a silver at the 2017 World Youth Championships and a bronze at the tournament in 2018.
She turned pro in 2021 and went undefeated in three fights, with her final bout coming in October 2022.
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