A mother and her daughter who were both diagnosed with cancer have died just 10 hours apart in Brazil, in a heartbreaking tragedy that has left relatives and friends mourning the loss of two generations of the same family.
Cibele Marchis, 28, died at about 4pm on Thursday in the Brazilian city of Mogi Guaçu, while her mother, Maria Elisabete Nogueira, 56, was receiving treatment and had been sedated at another hospital in the same city.
Just 10 hours later, Maria also died.
The extraordinary timing of their deaths meant that Cibele’s relatives and friends were still gathered at her wake when they received the devastating news that her mother had also passed away.
Neither of the two wanted to see the other die
The two women were later laid to rest together in a joint funeral at a municipal cemetery, bringing to an end a deeply painful chapter in a family that had spent months confronting two separate cancer battles at the same time.
Rawlinson Leandro da Costa, Maria’s nephew and Cibele’s cousin, told local media that the mother and daughter had often spoken about their greatest fear: that one of them would die before the other.
“Neither of the two wanted to see the other die,” he said. “They even commented on it, sometimes jokingly, other times seriously, and it happened. One never found out about the other’s death. It really is an astonishing thing.”
Cibele, who worked in real estate and digital marketing and had almost 12,000 followers on Instagram, had been fighting a rare and aggressive form of cancer that originated in her adrenal gland.
She was the first of the two women to receive a cancer diagnosis after developing symptoms in December 2023.
Throughout her illness, Cibele continued to share parts of her experience on social media, offering glimpses into the physical and emotional toll of living with a serious disease at such a young age.
In March, she posted a photograph of herself receiving treatment through a drip and reflected on the harsh reality of her illness.
“As long as your only problem is money, be grateful,” she wrote. “Worse is facing something that not even all the money in the world can solve.”
Her illness became particularly serious after she developed infections following surgery in December last year. Her family was called to the hospital as doctors treated her deteriorating condition.
Against expectations, however, Cibele recovered sufficiently to leave hospital for a short period.
Her mother was fighting a different cancer.
Maria had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had been receiving treatment as her condition became increasingly serious. She was admitted to hospital on September 17 after her health deteriorated.
The mother and daughter therefore found themselves confronting separate battles against cancer while their family attempted to support them through an extraordinarily difficult period.
Maria was still in hospital and sedated when Cibele died.
She never learned that her daughter had passed away.
Only hours later, Maria herself died.
The sequence of events has made the tragedy particularly painful for those who knew the pair, with relatives describing the timing as something that neither woman would have imagined despite their conversations about death.
Friends have remembered Maria, affectionately known as Bia, as a warm and generous woman whose life revolved around family and friendship.
Jorge Vitorino, who paid tribute to her after her death, described her as a woman who brought happiness to those around her.
“It is with profound sorrow and immense sadness that we announce the passing of Bia Nogueira, mother of our dear Cibele Marchis,” he said.
“Bia was a light wherever she went: a joyful, affectionate woman with a generous heart, who left unforgettable marks on everyone who had the blessing of sharing her life.”
He added that her life was characterised by faith, love, affection and devotion to her family and friends.
The deaths have resonated beyond the immediate family because of the extraordinary circumstances in which they occurred. Around the world, stories of relatives facing cancer at the same time often highlight not only the devastating nature of the disease but also the enormous emotional burden placed on families caring for loved ones.
Cancer remains one of the world’s major causes of death, affecting millions of families every year. For relatives, a diagnosis can bring months or years of hospital appointments, surgery, chemotherapy, medication, uncertainty and difficult decisions.
