Elly Mayday(1988-2019)

She began feeling symptoms which she would describe as excruciating lower back and abdomen pain, accompanied by pressure in her lower stomach, recurring bladder infections, and a constant feeling of being unwell. She went to the emergency room four times. Doctors didn't consider cancer because of her age; instead, she said, they told her that her symptoms were a result of her weight, and advised her to work out more. She lost 30 pounds, but her pain didn't go away. Her symptoms increased in the summer of 2013, and she returned to her doctors saying that she would refuse to work until she was diagnosed. She was finally diagnosed with ovarian cancer, specifically low-grade serous carcinoma, a rare form of cancer normally seen in older women; it had reached stage III. Mayday had four surgeries including a hysterectomy which left scars, and three months of chemotherapy which left her bald, but she wanted to continue to model. Mayday says that she decided to embrace her baldness and scars, as an opportunity to talk about her cancer. Mayday's modeling photos proudly showing off her bald head and surgery scars gained her tens of thousands of followers on Facebook. Over the year and a half course of her cancer treatment, Mayday lost 60 pounds, down to 120 pounds and size 10, which she says caused "skinny shaming" on social media. Some of her former fans or friends even accused her of using her cancer to make money and become famous. In July 2014, Mayday was told she was cancer free. In June 2015, Mayday's cancer returned, and she had a fifth surgery to remove another tumor. She posted pictures from this surgery to Instagram as well, referring to her scars as "beauty marks" but she stopped referring to herself as cancer free. Mayday kept modeling in New York until 2017, when her disease reoccurred, and she returned to Canada. In 2017, Mayday was the face of Canadian plus-size clothing store Addition Elle's campaign to raise money for Ovarian Cancer Canada. She also posted about the dark parts of her treatments on Instagram, including pictures of her exhausted, talking about vomiting, a video of her undergoing chemotherapy, and just spending time back at the farm. In 2018, she wrote an article about her hysterectomy making her unable to have children for Flare magazine. It was the first of her major operations. She had planned on eventually having children, five of them, and when she was diagnosed consulted a fertility specialist about collecting her eggs, but was told that the drugs used would increase the progression of her cancer, so she decided against it. Mayday died in Vancouver on March 1, 2019. Her disease had progressed, especially during the last months, and the doctors were unable to help any more. A high school friend who flew in to see her said that Mayday had accepted death, and didn't want people to forget. At her death, Mayday's Facebook page had 500,000 followers, many of whom commemorated her as an inspiration.