Noam Galai/Getty ImagesRole model: Dayna Christison walked New York Fashion Week during her cancer treatment.
This cancer patient is a model fighter.
Dayna Christison, 25, from Warwick, N.Y. has been treating Hodgkin’s Lymphoma for the past three years – but that hasn’t stopped her from signing a major modeling contract and walking in New York Fashion Week.
“I was straight up bald at this point,” she told Buzzfeed. “I refused to wear a wig or a scarf because, f–k everyone else, that’s how I looked and I didn’t want to hide that because of what other people thought.”
Christison was diagnosed with Stage IV Nodular Sclerosis version of the cancer, which affects the white blood cells, right after graduating from LIM College’s fashion business program in 2013. She underwent months of chemotherapy, blood transfusions and two stem cell implants while battling the aggressive cancer, and losing her long brown locks in the process.
The striking 5-foot-8 stunner had dabbled in modeling before getting sick, but it wasn’t until a photographer friend asked to take some portraits of her after the second stem cell transplant for his portfolio that she considered changing the face of fashion.
The outpouring of support from other cancer survivors convinced her that the media needs more women rocking their bald heads.
“I decided then that I needed to do this to help anyone [that] I can feel even a little bit more secure in such an insecure time in their lives,” she said.
She was signed by Major Models over the summer, and has walked in six runway shows, including the Eckhaus Latta and Raquel Allegra catwalks at New York Fashion Week in September. She’s also posed in ad campaigns for Urban Outfitters.
A photo posted by Dayna Marie (@runnndmc) on
“There’s always going to be something pushing you back,” said Christison, who is now undergoing a clinical trial to combat the disease and is funding her treatment via a GoFundMe page. “It’s how you decide to react to those obstacles and how you push through them that makes you achieve the things that you really want to get out of life.”
She isn’t the only couture cancer fighter. Ovarian cancer survivor and plus-size model Elly Mayday has also made headlines for redefining beauty by flaunting her own bald head and scars in lingerie shoots.
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