14 DAY TRIAL // At 25, Canadian Elly Mayday, a gorgeous plus-size model with a doll’s face and curves in all the right places, had just gotten started in the industry when she was diagnosed with a rare type of ovarian cancer. Today, she’s using her experience with the disease to raise awareness on it.
Elly has lost 40 pounds (18.1 kg) since she started chemo and has already undergone several surgical interventions, including a full hysterectomy, which means she will never be able to have children naturally.
Today, she sports a bald head and scars on her belly, and she’s showing them both off in a new campaign for sports bras for big-breasted women. In doing so, she isn’t just challenging ideals of beauty but also reaching out to fellow cancer sufferers to let them know that beauty can and does exist even after a cancer diagnosis.
She is also striving to raise awareness on cancer, while sharing her experience with it, which sometimes is bumpy and difficult, but other times optimistic and inspirational, a reason to look forward to the day.
The second video embedded at the end of the article was posted on her YouTube channel after she shaved her hair. It gets really emotional halfway through it, when Elly thanks her thousands of supporters from all over the world.
She tells ABC News that shaving her head and deciding to continue modeling was a risk, but one that she’s happy to have taken.
“In the lingerie industry, it's not something you do. It's all about long hair and big breasts and arched backs. But it's important to show what real women look like underneath their clothes,” she says.
The other day, Elly announced on Facebook that she’d be having another surgery, asking for her followers to pray for her.
“Surgery time is today 11 am. I am having an operation to remove all visible tumors followed by chemotherapy called HIPEC. Please save a thought for me today, It's pretty scary stuff I'm heading into but I'll hold my head as high as I can and I will push through. I have 3 weeks in hospital recovery, so send me letters!” she wrote.
