Published: 12:03 BST, 4 September 2026 | Updated: 00:44 BST, 5 September 2026
The series of videos posted to her 77,000 TikTok followers portray a young, vivacious woman in the prime of life.
The clips, some of which have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, feature teacher-turned-influencer Sam Jackson modelling new outfits, revelling in European sunshine and offering advice to fellow teachers preparing lessons for an army of precocious pre-teens.
But buried among the typical influencer content is a handful of videos that reveal the hidden hell the 32-year-old has experienced this year.
One posted in early July that's so far raked in more than 800,000 views sees Bolton-born Sam solemnly tell her followers 'the news no one wanted': She has stage four bowel cancer.
At least, she thought, it was a disease she was familiar with, and could predict a treatment plan. Information that she found online told her people live for several years with advanced disease.
She knew the condition was rising in people of her generation.
Only, within weeks, her world was upended once again, as an internal scan revealed an even more sinister reality.
The cancer was, in fact, in her appendix – the small, tube-like organ attached to the large intestine, which houses a portion of our gut bacteria.
Sam Jackson, 32, has been hit with a lethal cancer that's rising in young people
While it developed there, it's now approaching her stomach lining.
Experts say the disease, known medically as appendiceal cancer, is often tougher to treat than bowel cancer, and far more likely to spread after treatment.
And, curiously, it is also on the rise – particularly among young, fit and healthy Britons.
Incidence of the deadly condition has jumped five-fold over the last 20 years, according to data for England. The largest increase has been seen in those aged between 20 and 39.
Cancer specialists say it was 'very rare' to see a young person with this disease a decade ago. Today, one in three appendix cancer patients are under 50. For bowel cancer, it's one in 20.
