According to Southwest News Service, Jenner was “fit and healthy” until early April when she developed a cough. She initially believed it was a chest infection from her job as a musician and performer. Jenner, who used the stage name Monarkki, performed alongside her fiancée, Lily Monarch.
On April 18, Jenner collapsed and was rushed to York Hospital. After being admitted, she underwent chest X-rays, which revealed a 10 cm mass in her chest.
Over the next few weeks, several biopsies came back inconclusive.
“She couldn’t lie down due to the mass impacting her breathing and making her cough uncontrollably,” Monarch told Southwest News Service.
On May 21, Jenner was diagnosed with lymphoma, a type of blood cancer that affects the lymphatic system and is one of the most common cancers in young adults.
“She took the news quite well,” Monarch recalled. “She was upset at first. When I got called to the hospital the day she got the diagnosis, she was in a side room, and she cried in my arms.”
“But after getting the emotion out, we started to form a plan on how she was going to beat the cancer. We were always a couple that balanced each other out during times of adversity,” she added. “After that, she had this truly inspirational determination to beat the cancer. She wasn’t going to let it hold her back.”
Sadly, Jenner passed away on May 31. Her death came only ten days after her diagnosis and the day before she was to begin chemotherapy.
Of course, Monarch said her fiancée’s death has left her in “ruins,” and she’s devastated by how quickly the disease progressed in someone so healthy.
“This was the first health thing she ever had. Up until this point, she never even needed a prescription for anything,” she explained. “I’m heartbroken. The circumstances kill me every time I think about them.”
The 29-year-old has since set up a GoFundMe in the wake of Jenner’s death. Monarch says the fundraiser is meant to “help me get back on my feet whilst I continue to look for work during this great time of grief.”
Monarch remembered Jenner as “so optimistic and funny.” She added that the couple had been planning to perform in Finland later this year.
“She had so much care to give,” she told the outlet. “It just felt right having her by my side. We were getting ready to go over to Finland and just have this adventure of a lifetime together.”
“She lit up the life of every single person she came across,” the 29-year-old said.