Luke Goodwin, YouTuber Who Battled Rare Cancer, Dead at 35

The YouTube community is mourning the loss of an inspiration. 

Luke Goodwin, a man from Grimsby, England, who documented his battle with stage four Leiomyosarcoma on his YouTube channel “I Will Not Be Defeated,” died Aug. 2, his wife Beckey confirmed. He was 35. 

“This is a video I never wanted to do,” she said in an Aug. 4 video on Luke’s YouTube channel. “Luke did sadly pass away on the second of August, peacefully. He was at home. He had me, Beckey, his wife, his mom and his dad all by his side. Luke is at peace now. He’s not in any pain. 

And Beckey—who shares kids Taylor, 5, and Scarlett, 3, with Luke—began to get choked up as she discussed her late husband. 

“Luke is an amazing person,” she continued. “He really was. He showed me how to be strong even when you’re going through the toughest times. He was an amazing dad, son, husband, and his legacy will carry on.”

Beckey also thanked Luke’s subscribers for providing him the support he needed throughout his terminal diagnosis—which occurred in 2022—and fight. Although Luke’s initial life expectancy was a year, he managed to survive longer through several rounds of chemotherapy. 

“I just want to say a massive thank you to every single one of you,” she added. “It’s still rather raw at the minute but you’ve got to keep your head strong. That’s what Luke would say. It is what it is.”

She also offered to continue Luke’s channel to maintain his legacy. 

“Hopefully I can do more updates if people want that,” she said. “I’m not too sure.”

Luke, who amassed over 7,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, began documenting his cancer journey in April 2023, and shared his final video of himself last month. 

“People say that the mental strength that I hold is unreal,” he said, detailing how sick he had become. “You might see it that way, but when that’s the only way you’ve got to manage to carry on, it just comes naturally.”