Kyedae Shymko (21) is considered the “Queen of Twitch” and recently announced that she has been diagnosed with leukemia, revealing why she initially kept the diagnosis a secret even from her fiancé.
What illness is it about? The 21-year-old performs on Twitch under her first name and is the most-watched streamer for Riot’s tactical shooter, Valorant (via sullygnome). On March 3, Kyedae announced on Twitter that she had been diagnosed with leukemia.
There was a lot of sympathy from her fans, as well as from the streaming and Valorant communities as a whole. The streamer received numerous well wishes for recovery from content creators, e-sports players, and viewers.
In a stream, the 21-year-old talked about her diagnosis and explained why she initially did not tell anyone about the illness.
Partner should only learn about the illness after the championship
Why did she keep the diagnosis a secret? In her first stream after announcing the diagnosis, Kyedae spoke about how she found out about her illness. She initially did not tell her parents or even her fiancé.
Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, with whom Kyedae has been together since high school, is a former CS:GO pro and has been playing Valorant for the California team Sentinels since 2021. The largest tournament for the Riot shooter took place with VCT Lock//In.
From February 13 to March 4, 32 of the world’s best teams competed in the Brazilian city of São Paulo, including Sentinels with TenZ. The 21-year-old apparently wanted her partner not to be distracted by worries about her:
I wanted to make sure that he could fully concentrate on his game and work before I delivered the message to him.
However, the 1st place and thus $100,000 prize money were ultimately taken by Fnatic. We have embedded the clip where Kyedae addresses the topic:
“When I’m sad, cancer doesn’t go away either”
How is Kyedae dealing with her diagnosis? The 21-year-old is facing the diagnosis positively and even jokes: She will soon start chemotherapy, so she hopes not to die. Even when she learned about her illness, she initially laughed.
I apologize if I trigger or embarrass any of you, but everything I did during this time was laugh. Because let’s be honest: If I’m sad and then say ‘Oh, I have cancer’, it won’t just disappear.
Nevertheless, the streamer also talks about the serious sides of the cancer diagnosis: She already feels the side effects of the treatment after just a few days. Later, she will probably also lose her hair.
Kyedae wants to continue streaming and asks her viewers not to see or treat her differently: “Just treat me like a normal person.” Nevertheless, her streaming schedule will likely become more irregular as the treatment progresses.
When the now-deceased YouTuber Technoblade announced his cancer diagnosis, his Minecraft colleague Dream started a campaign to support research:
Minecraft: 22-year-old diagnosed with cancer – YouTuber supports research with strong action
