A TikTok influencer whose emotional video of him and his terminally ill wife shaving each other’s heads had more than 50 million views is now channelling his grief into a 24-hour fundraising marathon in her memory.
Marshall Exler, 26, will attempt to complete 100,000 steps on a treadmill alongside other social media personalities to raise money for Sarcoma UK, after his wife Faye died from an extremely rare form of the cancer that had spread to 12 places in her body by the time of her death late last year.
The Buckingham-based content creator, who has more than 400,000 TikTok followers, had originally planned for Faye to join him for the final 10,000 steps of the challenge when they discussed the idea in October. Instead, he’ll be completing those final steps alone, carrying forward her memory and her determination to raise awareness of a cancer that is so rare that medical experts couldn’t determine which subtype she had.
In a tribute after her death, Marshall said: ‘Faye is, was and always will be, the strongest person I have ever known. She fought this cancer head-on and never turned away or cowered. She took every setback as a challenge and my brave girl fought amazingly until the very, very end. I am so overwhelmingly proud of her.’
Faye had first noticed a lump on her inner thigh in 2023. She went to her GP in April that year but was told that, because she was young and healthy, it was probably nothing to worry about.
But Faye knew something was wrong and kept returning to her doctor, determined to find out what the issue was.
It was in August 2023 that she was diagnosed with sarcoma. Sarcomas are uncommon cancers that can affect any part of the body, on the inside or outside, including the muscle, bone, tendons, blood vessels and fatty tissues. There are about 100 different sub-types of sarcoma cancer.
In Faye’s case, it was a kind so rare that even expert analysis failed to determine which subtype it was.
The lump on her thigh, originally the size of a 20p coin, had grown to eight centimetres. She had surgery to remove the lump, which was followed by radiotherapy.
All seemed well, and the couple moved in together at the start of 2024. However, in March 2024, a check-up found that the sarcoma had spread to both her lungs. Faye was given the news that her disease was incurable.
She started to receive chemotherapy but two tumours were then found in her brain that affected her speech and movement. One was able to be removed by surgery but the sarcoma spread again and ended up in 12 places in her body before she died at the end of last year.
Marshall, 26, from Buckingham, said: ‘We moved in together in January 2024, with plans to start our own family as soon as her three-month check-up came back clear. We felt so hopeful that it would come back clear. When the results came back, we were heartbroken for obvious reasons, but also we felt like we were grieving that future of having children together. This was heartbreaking for us both.’
He described Faye, a marketing executive for a pet insurance company, as a ‘passionate and outspoken’ person who loved fashion and animals. He said she was also ‘the most caring person I have met in my life’.
‘She helped me become a man. I was 20 when I met her, but I was still quite childish. She was the person whom I was going to spend forever with. She was a caring, amazing woman.’ Marshall and Faye had been together for five years and seven days – they got married four weeks before she died.
Marshall, who has 400,000 followers on TikTok, had chronicled Faye’s story on social media. In May 2024, when Faye had started chemotherapy, an emotional video of the pair taking turns to shave each other’s heads received 33 million views on TikTok alone, with millions more views on other platforms.
Now, he is teaming up with other social media personalities and influencers to take part in a fundraiser for charity Sarcoma UK that will be livestreamed on TikTok and YouTube starting on Wednesday 3 September.
The aim is to complete 100,000 steps on a treadmill in 24 hours. Marshall will complete the first 10,000 steps alone and, after that, will be joined by a variety of guests for 10,000 steps at a time.
Marshall had spoken to Faye in October 2024 about the fundraiser. She loved the idea and, originally, she and Marshall were going to complete the final 10,000 steps together.
He admits he had never heard of sarcoma before Faye’s diagnosis but now is aware of how devastating it can be, especially for young people.
‘It’s like when you buy a car and you then see that make of car everywhere. I want to make a dent in the right direction to help raise awareness of sarcoma and get it known.’
Sarcoma UK’s Director of Fundraising and Communications, Kerry Reeves-Kneip, said: ‘Marshall’s determination to turn his devastating loss into hope for others exemplifies the courage we often see in our sarcoma community. When faced with ultra-rare sarcomas like Faye’s – cancers so uncommon that even our leading specialists struggle to classify them – families often feel isolated facing the unknown. The heartbreak is that with more research funding, we could give patients like Faye better answers, better treatments and, most importantly, better outcomes. Marshall’s marathon isn’t just about the miles he’ll cover – it’s about covering the distance between where sarcoma research stands today and where it needs to be tomorrow, so that other young couples don’t have to endure what he and Faye went through.’
To donate to Marshall, go to https://www.justgiving.com/page/100kforfaye
