The late body positive model, Elly Mayday whose real name was Ashley Shandrel Luther was born in Saskatchewan, Canada on April 15, 1988. When she was only 25 years old, she started the biggest battle of her life, when she fell ill with severe lower back pain.
Her cancer was not diagnosed at first, with trips to the emergency department often ending with doctors sending her home with painkillers and advising that she lost weight. Realising that she would need to take this further by herself, she pushed for a CT scan, so that a better look could be had of the affected area.
This revealed an ovarian cyst, which was stage three ovarian cancer and is usually only found in post-menopausal women. Several surgeries and months of chemotherapy later, it looked like Elly had beaten the cancer but there was heartbreaking news in 2017, when it was revealed that it had returned and this time there was no beating it.
Instead of stepping away from the spotlight, Elly spoke openly about her struggles and proudly showed off the cancer surgery scars on her stomach in both personal social media photos and professional shoots.
She spent the final eight months of her life in hospital and set about helping others suffering from cancer, by sharing her story in a succession of detailed social media posts. Days before her passing, Elly shared how lucky she felt for having the modelling career that she had and was taking comfort that her journey could help others in the future.