06 Dec This Model Released Her First Professional Photos Since Losing Her Jaw To Cancer And They’re Beautiful

Cancer is a devastating illness which affects almost all of our lives in one way or another. Even though billions of dollars are being spent on potential cures and treatments, it is estimated that half of all people will develop the disease in their lifetimes.

Unlike in the not-so-distant past, a cancer diagnosis does not equate to a death sentence and half of those diagnosed will beat the disease. Mortality rates are dependent on a number of factors, but the earlier that cancer is diagnosed, the better the odds.

One of the rarest forms of cancer is osteosarcoma, which is also known as bone cancer. It’s particularly unusual for a person to develop osteosarcoma in their jaw, but it is relatively easy to diagnose – starting with painful swelling that does not go away.

Canadian model Elizaveta Bulokhova, then 24, knew something was wrong whilst on holiday with her boyfriend Roman Troubetskoi in May 2014. The right-hand side of her jaw was swollen, and this pain got progressively worse until she sought help in July of that year.

The pain was unbearable, and she knew that she was not suffering from an extreme case of toothache. It didn’t take long for biopsies and CT scans to reveal that she had a rare form of osteosarcoma, and this diagnosis was accompanied by two other pieces of devastating news.

Bulokhova was told that if she wanted to survive, she’d have to have her jaw removed. At this point in her life, she had already been modeling professionally for seven years and knew that her career would most likely end as a result. But the worst news was still to come.

Tragically, the Latvian-born Bulokhova was pregnant when she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, and doctors informed her that she would have no option but to abort her unborn baby, despite already being in her second trimester, so that she could have chemotherapy.

“He was very active, and I would talk to him often while he was in my womb,” she recalled in an interview with Vice. “I had to tell him to stop moving because I couldn’t keep him and then all of a sudden he did. He listened; he stopped moving.”

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