Bailey Jean Matheson was just 35-years-old when she passed away on April 5 from leiomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer in her abdomen.

When she was diagnosed two and a half years before that day, she had only been given 12 months to live.

Amazingly she managed to outlive expectations after making the brave decision not to go through with chemotherapy.

Despite this, she must have known the end was coming, as just days before her death, the young woman from Halifax in Nova Scotia penned her own obituary - and you might need to have a tissue handy while you read it.

Before her passing she wrote her own obituary (stock photo) (
Image:
Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Published in her local paper, The Chronicle Herald, Bailey paid tribute to all her loved ones and offered some beautiful advice to the living.

She wrote: "35 years may not seem long, but damn it was good!

"To my parents, thank you for supporting me and my decisions throughout my life. I always remember my mom saying losing a child would be the hardest loss a parent could go through.

"My parents gave me the greatest gift in supporting my decisions with not going through chemo and just letting me live the rest of my life the way I believed it should be. I know how hard that must have been watching me stop treatment and letting nature take its course. I love you both even more for this."

It was published in her local paper, The Chronicle Herald (
Image:
InMemoriam.Ca/Bailey Jean Matheson)

The young woman went on to thank her friends, as an only child, she says she cherished their bond "more than anything".

"I never thought I could love my friends more than I did but going through this and having your unconditional love and support you have made something that is normally so hard, more bearable and peaceful," she continued.

Bailey then went on to mention her partner, Brent, who she met just three months before her shocking diagnosis.

"You had no idea what you were getting yourself into when you swiped right that day," she writes, "I couldn't have asked for a better man to be by my side for all the adventures, appointments, laughs, cries and breakdowns.

Her words have since gone viral (stock photo) (
Image:
Getty Images/Cultura RF)

"You are an amazing person and anyone in your life is so fortunate to know you. I love you beyond words."

Next she thanked her aunts, pets and her palliative care team, before asking that instead of giving her family flowers, donations be made to organisations such as Melanies Way or Young Adults Cancer Canada.

She finished the post by sharing an inspirational quote for all those she left behind, and it's bound to inspire even those who didn't know her.

It reads: "Don't take the small stuff so seriously and live a little."