‘Our beautiful friend’: SLO woman who got married with late-stage cancer dies at 35
A San Luis Obispo woman who married her sweetheart late in the stages of life-threatening cancer in 2019 — amid an outpouring of friend and community support — has died.
Celebrating her SLO wedding in the glistening sun in Oct. 13, 2019, Brittany Hunt and her husband Travis Hunt cast worry aside for a day, as best they could, and tied the knot in front of 210 friends and family — the bride wearing a blonde wig following rounds of chemotherapy treatment.
Joyous photos showed the couple embracing as the sun went down, kissing and throwing their hands in the air.
Hunt, who shared her story with The Tribune in the days after, was diagnosed with Stage 4 cervical cancer, which isn’t curable in most cases.
After a valiant fight over the past two years, Hunt succumbed to her illness at home on the night of Jan. 22 at the age of 35. She had been in and out of hospitals for weeks.
Knowing the end could be near, her husband, Travis, invited several of her close friends over and they listened to some of her favorite music with her.
They put on ’90s rock and punk music, bands like Yellowcard, Taking Back Sunday and We Came As Romans, along with country singer Chris Stapleton.
They told stories until she finally went to sleep for the last time, Travis Hunt said.
“To the love of my life,” Travis Hunt wrote in a post on Facebook which currently has around 600 reactions. “You have fought the hardest fight I have ever witnessed and I’m proud to have stood by your side the whole time. Tonight, Brittany passed peacefully at home with her friends and family surrounding her telling their favorite Brittany story.”
Friends and family described her as a fiercely resilient woman who went through horrendous chemotherapy treatments and needle pricks, frequent hospital visits and exhausting days, while never losing her smile.
“I will fight like hell to stay here for my son and family,” Brittany Hunt told The Tribune in 2019.
She leaves behind an energetic 3-year-old son, Paxton, who hasn’t fully grasped the magnitude of the situation. He’s not fully aware his mom is gone yet, her husband said.
“He’s a smart little guy,” Travis Hunt said. “And I know he’s sensing things. I talked to him the other morning. He woke up and he said, ‘I had a dream about mom the other night.’ I was like ‘Oh (bleep).’”
Travis Hunt said he’s taking things slow with his son, giving it a week or two before having a talk with him.
“I’m giving it time and then I’ll sit down with him and talk to him,” Hunt said. “It’s a weird age to be going through something like this, you know?”
COVID-19 weakens SLO mother, wife battling cancer
More than two years ago, doctors didn’t have a timeline as to how long Brittany might live.
She didn’t want to know how much time she might have left, she told The Tribune at the time, wanting to remain optimistic that she’d beat it.
And Travis Hunt said for a while she fended off the cancer as well as possible, though it lingered.
“I talked to her doctor down at USC and they told me she was fighting and her body was taking well to the treatments, but it kept on coming back,” Travis Hunt said.
They knew then it would probably be a lifelong battle and that Hunt was “always going to be fighting it.”
“I never got a timeline,” Travis Hunt said.
In November, Brittany contracted COVID-19.
“I took her to Sierra Vista’s emergency room three or four times,” Travis Hunt said. “Basically, she couldn’t breathe.”
Her breathing returned to normal again, but the virus impacted her immune system, making her more vulnerable to the spread of cancer.
Doctors later conducted X-rays and CT scans and found spots of cancer on her liver, lungs and elsewhere throughout her body.
“As soon as the COVID-19 hit, it (expletive) just kind of spread like a wildfire because her immune system walls were down and there was nothing protecting her,” Travis said.
Brittany kicked COVID-19 in a couple of weeks, then got pneumonia. Finally, after the cancer had invaded her liver, it became too much to fight off.
During that period she was in and out of hospitals at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, French Hospital Medical Center and USC.
Her official cause of death was cancer, Travis Hunt said.
Friends, family share memories of a ‘bad ass woman’
Since her death, post after post sharing memories of Brittany have appeared on social media.
“I spent two or three hours the second day,” Travis Hunt said. “I couldn’t even look at my phone initially. I just had to sit down and go through all the text messages. It was (expletive) crazy. People were posting pictures from when she was super young to now and everything in between.”
The posts included messages like: “RIP Brittany Hunt!! You are one bad-ass woman (hero for sure). Enjoy heaven, my friend. No more pain. Your baby boy will now know how hard his mama fought for him one of these days.”
Another said they were there to hold Hunt’s hand when she died, telling her they loved her.
“I know in my heart she felt the love,” read the comment. “Even in her hardest times she would listen to me vent, give me mom advice and hug me when I needed it. I use to see myself as a strong woman, but now, there is no comparison to our beautiful friend.”
Hunt’s numerous friends included supporters from her jobs at Eureka, where she worked as a server for five years, and SLO Smiles, where she was a former dental assistant before she had to stop working because of her health.
A celebration of life will be held March 5 for Hunt at La Cuesta Ranch in San Luis Obispo from noon to 5 p.m.
Hunt will be posting an announcement of the event on his Facebook page and asks people to RSVP so he can get a head count and prepare food. Friends can reach out to him by phone as well, he said.
Instead of wearing black, Travis hopes attendees wear Los Angeles Dodgers or Kings gear, flannel shirts, country jeans or other types of apparel that Brittany liked.
There will be beer, food and a slideshow remembering Brittany.
“I might get on microphone and say a couple things, and then just kind of let the slideshow play and everybody just kind of hang out and just talk about Britt and all that and try not to cry as much as we’re probably going to do,” Travis Hunt said.
He added: “The love and support from everybody’s been just insane. I don’t think I go 10 minutes without somebody texting me saying “Hey, thinking of you guys. If you need anything, let me know.’”
