Zoleka Mandela, the granddaughter of late South African leader Nelson Mandela who followed “in her grandfather’s footsteps,” has died after an 11-year battle with cancer that spread throughout her body, her family said.

She was 43.

The outspoken writer and activist was “surrounded by friends and family” when she died in a hospital late Monday, family spokesperson Zwelabo Mandela said in a statement.

Exactly a week earlier, Zoleka Mandela had been “admitted into hospital for ongoing treatment for metastatic cancer to the hip, liver, lung, pelvis, brain and spinal cord.”

“Recent scans revealed significant disease progression, including fibrosis in the lungs as well as several emboli,” the statement said of the activist first diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 32.

The spokesman expressed the family’s “sincerest gratitude to the medical team that took care of her.”

Zoleka was born April 9, 1980, to father MJ Seakamela and mother Zindzi Mandela — the daughter of Nelson and his second wife, Winnie.

She was just 10 years old when her grandfather was released from prison in 1990 after 20 years behind bars.

Up until that point, she had only ever known him as an incarcerated man, so she was excited when he was coming home, according to the BBC.

Nelson would go on to serve as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, before his death in 2013 at the age of 95.

It was only after his passing that Zoleka said she became an activist.

She was candid about her history of drug addiction, and spoke openly about her struggles with depression and the fact that she was sexually abused as a child.

After her 13-year-old daughter died in a car crash in 2010, Zoleka started campaigning for better road safety in South Africa.

She was candid about her history of drug addiction, and spoke openly about her struggles with depression and the fact that she was sexually abused as a child.

It is believed she was in the hospital herself at the time of her daughter’s crash, recovering from an earlier suicide attempt, the Evening Standard reports.

Zoleka checked herself into rehab soon after, according to the Standard.

By age 32, Zoleka was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She underwent a double mastectomy, but cancer returned in 2016, when she began documenting her journey on social media to spread awareness and encourage others to get screened.

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