Influencer Isabel Veluso, 19, has passed away, just months after her heartfelt letter to her baby son Arthur, promising, “I will be back,” went viral last fall.
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Veloso was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2021 and had been hospitalized since November 2025. She died on Jan. 10 at Hospital Erasto Gaertner in Curitiba, Brazil, according to Brazilian outlet Mix Vale.
Veloso shared her cancer journey through candid videos and photos on her Instagram, where she has 4 million followers.
Her death follows an open letter to her 1-year-old son, Arthur, which went viral in October 2025. Veloso shared the letter on social media while separated from him during a bone marrow transplant.
Isabel Veloso’s Heartbreaking Letter to Son: ‘I Will Be Back’
In her poignant letter, Veloso assured her son that she “didn’t walk away” and promised him, “I will be back,” accompanied by a final, bittersweet photograph of the pair laughing together at home.
“Hey there, my love,” Veloso wrote. “Mom is not with you right now, and I know you feel it … And that smell you are looking for in the air is not yet there … but I want to tell you something: I didn’t walk away. I am here through it all.”
“In your pillow, in your favorite toy, in the sounds the house makes when you wake up,” the influencer continued. “And mainly … I am inside the reason that got me up one more time: you, my love.”
Veloso told her son, “mom is in a place that takes care of the body,” and that she hoped to see him again someday.
“I will be strong again. To carry you over. To run with you in the park. To see you growing, smiling, sleeping peacefully. And I will be back. It will take a little while, but I’ll be back,” Veloso wrote. “With the same heart … the same love, with a hug … everything that this longing has done.”
She also told her son in the letter, “mom is listening from wherever she is” and “you were never alone,” adding, “I promise I’ll be back soon.”
Veloso welcomed her son, Arthur, with her husband, Lucas Borbas, in December 2024. The couple announced the pregnancy in August 2024, just eight months after Veloso received her terminal cancer diagnosis.
In 2023, she underwent chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant before being declared cancer-free. However, the teen’s cancer returned three months later with a 6.6-inch tumor in her lungs, according to The Daily Mail.