Charity Pierce, known for her appearance on My 600-lb Life, has passed away following several health setbacks.
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TMZ reports that Pierce died early Tuesday, surrounded by loved ones. According to the outlet’s sources, the reality TV personality had been in hospice care for one to two months due to ongoing medical issues, including lymphedema and fluid buildup in her lungs. The source speculated that the fluid buildup may have contributed to her death.
Pierce’s daughter, Charly Jo, confirmed the news in an emotional Facebook post. Charly shared that she was by her mother’s side during her final moments and expressed relief that Pierce is now “finally at peace.”
“I wasn’t going to post about this,” Charly wrote, according to TMZ, noting that a surge of messages led her to share the news. She expressed comfort that her mother is now reunited with deceased family members and stated she was grateful to be by her side “before taking her last breath.”
Pierce appeared on season 3 of the TLC series. Viewers followed her journey as she lost a significant amount of weight after starting the program at nearly 800 pounds.
Charity’s story, which included surgeries and personal struggles, continued on My 600-lb Life: Where Are They Now?. The follow-up series documented her ongoing health challenges and her efforts to rebuild family relationships, including with her daughter, Charly.
Pierce’s official cause of death is unknown. However, she was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2019.
“[The diagnosis] devastated me bc my mom passed away from brain cancer. So, since Christmas, I’ve had high anxiety and lots of panic attacks,” she wrote on Facebook then. “On March 2, [2020], my kidney was removed. And now I’m recovering at home, trying to heal. I just hope the future has something good in store.”
My 600-lb Life Fans Pay Tribute to Charity Pierce
Meanwhile, a Reddit thread about Pierce’s passing was full of comments from mourning My 600-lb Life fans.
“It’s so sad how many people profiled still die young even after losing so much weight,” one Reddit user lamented.
“I just saw on Charity’s Facebook page that she’d posted that she was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2020. She never updated about it. At the top of her Facebook page, Charity posted that she’d lost almost 540 pounds,” a second fan observed.
“Charity was 1 of those people who succeeded. Sure, she had slip-ups at the beginning, we all have, [and] she made Dr. Now proud as hell [and] that’s not easy to do. She was a success story [and] made her family [and] all of us proud,’ another fan added.