Elly Mayday

Early life Mayday was born Ashley Shandrel Luther on April 15, 1988, and grew up on a farm near Aylesbury, Saskatchewan (population 50). She grew up with three brothers; her family grew crops, raised cattle, horses, pigs and chickens, and ran a local restaurant. Her mother was an artist. Mayday went to boarding school at age 13, then studied gender studies and psychology at university, and afterwards took a room with her brother in Vancouver.

Modeling career

When she was 23 years old, Mayday was working as a flight attendant for Sunwing Airlines, which took her to routes including Cuba, Mexico, and Jamaica. She was also trying to work as a model. She adopted her stage name, Elly Mayday, as a combination of Elly May Clampett, a character from The Beverly Hillbillies, and Mayday, the emergency procedure word, from her aviation career. She was told she was not tall or thin enough for traditional modeling, but that her 34-29-44 measurements Doctors did not consider cancer because of her age; instead, she said, they told her that her symptoms were a result of her weight, and advised her to exercise and strengthen her core. She lost , but her pain did not go away.

Mayday had four surgeries, including a hysterectomy, which left scars, and three months of chemotherapy which left her bald. She also landed an international modeling contract with Jaclyn Sarka, founder of JAG Models in New York City, who had seen her photos on Instagram before hearing about her cancer diagnosis.

She was originally called a plus-size model by industry standards, a label which she rejected, saying that she embraced her size 14 body, and was normal size. Some of her former fans or friends accused her of using her cancer to make money and become famous. She flew to Australia to front a campaign for the Australian Women's Weekly, but she stopped referring to herself as cancer free. In 2017, Mayday was the face of Canadian plus-size clothing store Addition Elle's campaign to raise money for Ovarian Cancer Canada. She posted about the difficult parts of her treatments on Instagram, including pictures of her exhausted, and videos of her talking about vomiting and undergoing chemotherapy.

In 2018, she wrote an article for Flare magazine about her hysterectomy making her unable to have children. It was the first of her major operations. She had planned on eventually having five children, "I need to take care of the young girls that need me or need this voice. That's my way of parenting for now," she told the CBC.

Death Mayday died in Vancouver on March 1, 2019, aged 30. Her disease had progressed, especially during the last months, and the doctors were unable to help any more. A high school friend who flew in to see her said that Mayday had accepted death.