Theo Burrell, who appeared as an expert on “Antiques Roadshow,” died of brain cancer on July 8, her family said. She was 39.
The news was announced in a post on Burrell’s Instagram account on Saturday. The post noted that she “passed away peacefully surrounded by her family.”
“Neither she nor her medical team foresaw this happening quite so quickly,” the post stated. “She was an incredible person who fought hard for her family, friends and raising awareness of this cruel disease.
“She saw life events like her son’s first day at school and her wedding that a little over four years ago we thought she’d never see.”
Burrell was a ceramics and glass expert with Lyon & Turnbull auctioneers in Edinburgh, the oldest auction house in Scotland, the Los Angeles Times reported. She appeared in four episodes of the reality television show in 2019 and 2020, according to IMDb.com.
She was diagnosed with glioblastoma in June 2022, the BBC reported.
According to the Mayo Clinic, glioblastoma is an aggressive type of brain cancer that starts in cells called astrocytes, which support nerve cells.
Burrell, who was born Theodora Helen Burrell on Sept. 1, 1986, was from East Lothian, the BBC reported.
After her diagnosis, Burrell underwent treatments including life-extending surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Burrell told BBC Scotland News how she started began ill in late 2021.
“I had five or six months of increasingly worsening symptoms -- headaches, sickness, problems with my vision, very, very pressurized pains in my head, migraines -- the list went on,” she told the news outlet. “And it wasn’t until I went to A&E at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh that I was given the diagnosis. I had absolutely no idea it was coming, it was a huge shock.”
Burrell said in a June 27 post that marked the four-year anniversary of her diagnosis (June 7) that she was originally given a life expectancy of 12 to 18 months.
“In the wake of that news I had many dark thoughts including that I wouldn’t see my son’s 2nd birthday let alone him starting school, but I’m lucky enough to say I did!” Burrell wrote. ”And no one can take that away from me."
In a video posted in March with Department of Health and Social Care, Burrell said she had undergone 17 rounds of chemotherapy, along with one surgical procedure, USA Today reported.
Burrell’s family said in their Instagram post that the cancer community provided “so much comfort and strength to her in her darkest moments.”
“But most of all it provided hope and I think what she would want most of all is for other people to find hope in her story. Hope that the statistics aren’t gospel and that one day they’ll be very different.”
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