TikTok star Sydney Towle, aged 25, cries as she gives latest update on her bile duct cancer battle

Sydney Towle told her fans she had received unsettling and upsetting news about her cancer's trajectory.

On Tuesday (June 17), the 25-year-old social media star posted a two-minute video where she spoke about the results of a recent medical visit. "It's the first time that I have gone in, and they've said 'this isn't good,'" she began, adding, "which obviously is not what you want to hear when you have cancer."

Sydney became emotional as she explained what's next in her treatment. She said she is undergoing surgery on Monday June 30 to get a hepatic pump, a device that delivers high doses of chemotherapy to the liver directly through the liver's main artery, called the hepatic artery.

She said that after she has had the operation she will have to stay in the hospital for four or five days afterwards, and as a result of that she had to cancel a holiday which she had planned for late June and early July. "Hopefully I'll still get to take it someday," she said as her voice broke.

In addition to the pump, Towle told her TikTok followers that she'll be receiving a new "experimental" form of chemotherapy. "This just isn't what I thought my life was gonna be like," she added. Through tears, she also said she was finding it increasingly difficult to remain positive.

A day later, on Wednesday June 18, Sydney returned to TikTok to tell her fans she was feeling more optimistic than the day before. “Where there is redirection there is new hope,” she said. “And I am being redirected on a new path, and hopefully on that new path there is a lot of good things happening.

The star has received many messages of support from her many followers. “Praying for you, wishing you nothing but the best. Take care,” one person wrote. Another person said: “I don’t know how a person can become so emotionally invested in a stranger on the internet, but here I am. Think of you often and sending all the good vibes that your new direction is successful!” A fellow cancer sufferer penned: “I have been on this journey for 3 years now and it gets tough, but you are so inspirational.”

The influencer was diagnosed with the rare, aggressive form of cancer at age 23. Since her diagnosis two years ago, she has continuously documented her bile duct cancer journey with her followers. She started posting the day she was officially diagnosed with cancer.

As she has more than 812,000 TikTok followers and over 63,000 on Instagram, Sydney previously told People she wanted to use her platform to help others - and that this has given her a "purpose" amid her cancer battle. "What’s really kept me going is the people who message me or even come up to me and say ‘you’ve helped me so much,'" she told the publication. "Just knowing that being vulnerable and real about cancer is making a difference — that’s been huge for me.”

Bile duct cancer may not have any symptoms, or the symptoms can be hard to spot. According to the NHS, however, symptoms of bile duct cancer can include the whites of your eyes turning yellow or your skin turning yellow known as jaundice, itchy skin, darker wee and paler poo than usual, loss of appetite or losing weight without trying to, feeling generally unwell, feeling tired or having no energy a high temperature or feeling hot or shivery. People can also feel or be sick or feel pain in their stomach.