Mike Sloan, the London, Ont., man who documented the final months of his life with terminal cancer for thousands of followers on Twitter, died Monday.

Sloan, who had been living with Stage 4 anaplastic thyroid cancer, “passed peacefully” Monday afternoon, according to a tweet made on Sloan’s account by a friend.

“I was with him at the end, holding his hand,” Bob Smith tweeted. “He thanks you all for your support on this journey. His last words were, ‘Tell Chub I love him.’ ” Chub is the name of Sloan’s cat.

The 50-year-old Sloan died “via MAID,” (medical assistance in dying), the tweet reads.

He found out he had cancer on Feb. 3, 2019.

Cheryl Miller, a former City of London councillor, met Sloan 16 years ago. She said that Sloan’s cancer diagnosis was “like a rebirth” for him.

“Mike had mental health issues and a very unpleasant upbringing with his family and he could lash out — decimate someone with one tweet. But in the last six months of his life, he reached out to people who he’d hurt and apologized,” Miller said.

Near the end of his life, Sloan found “another voice,” says Miller, one which made “so many people laugh and so many people happy.”

“To go where from he was to where he died ... was a metamorphosis,” Miller said.

On Monday, as “RIP Mike” trended on Twitter, the tributes rolled in:

A journalism and politics buff, Sloan had taken to Twitter to illuminate his personal experience with cancer. He inspired and delighted his 13,000 Twitter followers with his wit, wisdom and resilience — often with a touch of self-deprecation — and many mourned his loss on Monday.

In one telling tweet, he quoted a London Free Press article describing his successful bid to raise $25,000 for Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU), a community organization in London, and wrote: “Puff piece.”

By all accounts, life wasn’t easy for Sloan. In a post from October, he wrote that he “grew up in a home filled with alcoholism, abuse, denial, and enablement.”

“There was no respite, or even escape,” and he sought “hospitalization for anxiety and depression” later on.

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“I left ... at age 19 with no place to go. My parents had no money or plan. I stayed with relatives so I could get back on my feet and tried to resume my life. I thought I was strong enough, until things came crashing down and I wasn’t. It shouldn’t have to be that way.”

As a result, Sloan became an advocate for YOU and the group’s 340 Project in London, a “home for independent youth for whom traditional family settings are no longer an option.”

“This is something that, had I had the strength and opportunity, I could have availed myself. That wasn’t the case,” Sloan wrote.

To honour him, Sloan asked his friends to “make a donation to YOU to support the build of 340 Project. Together, let’s build these youth a home.”

In December, Sloan had tweeted out a self-authored “obituary,” opting not to “keep people in suspense,” as he phrased it.

One of the final lines — exemplifying the characteristic stoicism that endeared him to his followers — reads: “Mike insisted that his death not be viewed as sad, but as a natural progression of life itself.”

Ted Fraser is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @ted_fraser

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