Legendary supermodel Linda Evangelista has revealed she has been diagnosed with cancer twice in five years.
In an interview with WSJ Magazine, the 58-year-old admitted she chose to “keep it quiet” and “only a handful of people knew”.
She said the first diagnosis came after a mammogram in 2018 and decided to undergo a bilateral mastectomy – a treatment which involves surgery to remove both breasts.
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“The margins were not good. [I chose this treatment] due to other health factors, without hesitation, because I wanted to put everything behind me and not to have to deal with this.
“Thinking I was good and set for life. Breast cancer was not going to kill me.”
Four years later, the fashion icon felt a lump on her chest in July 2022 and an MRI revealed cancer was present in her pectoral muscle.
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“I just went into this mode that I know how to do – just do what you’ve got to do and get through it,” she said. “And that’s what I did.”
“Dig a hole in my chest,” she recalled telling her doctors.
“I don’t want it to look pretty. I want you to excavate. I want to see a hole in my chest when you’re done. Do you understand me? I’m not dying from this.”
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Evangelista was told after surgery that although her prognosis was good, there was a chance the cancer could return.
“Well, once it’s come back, there’s a chance,” she recalled the oncologist’s words.
“I know I have one foot in the grave, but I’m totally in celebration mode.”
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