The supermodel shared that she battled breast cancer for five years in an interview earlier this week
Linda Evangelista is beating breast cancer — and her scars are a great reminder of that win.
In an interview with Vanity Fair published Thursday, the beloved supermodel addressed her recent revelation that she battled breast cancer for five years after being diagnosed in December 2018, and was diagnosed with pectoral muscle cancer last year. Evangelista previously shared that her prognosis was “good.”
“I’ve had some health struggles and everything now is just a celebration,” she told the outlet. “I think going through hardships and coming through the other end has made me focus only on the good things. I’m so happy to be alive. I know I am very fortunate.”
She said that she “never felt like [her] breasts defined [her] as a woman.”
“I have always viewed scars on the body from surgeries, from disease, as trophies. They are like gold and shiny and should be on a mantle. It shows you won,” she continued. “I think scars are to be celebrated and not to be looked at as bad and ugly. It makes you stronger.”
Earlier this week, she told the Wall Street Journal that in July last year, a lump on her chest prompted her to see her surgical oncologist. Evangelista underwent an MRI and the doctor immediately ordered a biopsy. When the results came in, she was told that cancer had been found in her pectoral muscle.
The model veteran ordered her surgeon to “dig a hole” in her chest. “I don’t want it to look pretty,” she recalled saying. “I want you to excavate. … Do you understand me? I’m not dying from this.”
She has since faced radiation and chemo. Although she says her future is uncertain, Evangelista told WSJ, “I know I have one foot in the grave, but I’m totally in celebration mode.”