America’s Next Top Model alum Jael Strauss has died at the age of 34, just two months after revealing she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, reported TMZ Tuesday.
The model, who competed on Season 8 of the reality show, reportedly died in hospice early Tuesday morning after falling unconscious a few days ago and suffering a rapid decline Monday night. Strauss had reportedly decided to stop her chemotherapy treatments near the end of October and was moved to hospice mid-November.
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Strauss revealed that she had been diagnosed with “incurable” Stage 4 breast cancer in a heartbreaking Facebook post in October, writing, “I was gonna write some long thing but some of you guys deserve to know, On October 2nd I was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer.”
She continued, “It has aggressively spread throughout my body and is incurable. With treatment it may prolong my life longer than the ‘few months’ doctors said I could make it. I don’t want to die. I need another one of those miracles that I got back in 2013.”
Since her diagnosis, Strauss has kept fans up to date on her health on Facebook, sharing a number of posts, videos and memes about her motto of “fโ cancer.”
On Nov. 22, she wrote, “First night in hospice. So many things I never knew about life. Or death. So many things.”
The model also had a GoFundMe campaign set up in her honor by friends. “Jael, one of the most compassionate, generous, and kind-hearted beings in the universe, has been dealt a tough hand,” the campaign info reads. “Those of us who know her understand that she is a fighter, but this fight will be a long, rocky, and definitely expensive one.”
It continued, “Jael, being the selfless person that she is, has helped countless people throughout her life as an advocate for recovery and social justice. She has offered everything she has to people in need; no matter what their situation, she is always ready to help with an empathetic heart and nonjudgmental spirit. She has created ‘gofundmes’ for literally dozens of her friends, and it is now time for us to pay her back. We have the chance, and honestly the obligation, to step up and return the favor.”
Photo credit: Instagram/Jael Strauss