Blogger announces own death after battle with cancer

"Here it is. I'm dead," read the last internet post of Derek K. Miller, who died last week after more than four years of blogging about his struggle with colorectal cancer.

"In advance, I asked that once my body finally shut down from the punishments of my cancer, then my family and friends publish this prepared message I wrote -- the first part of the process of turning this from an active website to an archive," he wrote on his blog, penmachine.com.

A day after his death, a longtime friend, Alistair Calder, published the final message.

"I felt as though I was putting Derek's ... last moments on the web," Calder said. "It was really, really, really hard."

Meanwhile, news of Miller's death -- and his final post online -- went viral.

The site "got 3 million visitors and it shutdown," said Miller's wife, Airdrie.

The 41-year-old writer and musician of Burnaby, British Columbia, left behind two daughters, Marina, 13, and Lauren, 11.

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