Channeling an Icon
- Model Slick Woods, 23, who has modeled for Rihanna, Kanye West and Marc Jacobs, has continued to slay the fashion world amid a late stage battle with melanoma.
- In her latest look, the edgy fashion darling is channeling late icon Marilyn Monroe, whom she sees as a kindred spirit.
- Woods' cancer was first spotted at a routine dental exam, where her dentist noticed spots in her mouth and had them tested. This is why it is imperative to get regular check-ups with a medical professional.
The edgy, bald-headed, gap-toothed beauty, was plucked from obscurity, discovered at a bus stop while living on the streets of L.A. and is now strutting down runways for fashion designers like Kayne West and Marc Jacobs, and for powerhouse luxury brands Fendi and Miu Miu.
Read MoreIn a past interview with W magazine, Woods said that she never believed in ghosts until she stayed in a former Palm Springs suite where Marilyn Monroe used to live, calling it “super haunted.”
The UK’s ES magazine called Woods “the coolest model in the world right now” in a 2017 interview, and in the interview Woods said she wanted to leave a legacy like Monroe. “I like to be in the spotlight, I like attention,” she said. 'But I want to feel really limitless. I want my homies to be able to make money off me when I'm dead. Like Marilyn Monroe. I want to be immortal.”
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Woods, who has been battling melanoma since 2019, publicly announced that she stopped receiving chemotherapy treatments for her stage 3 disease in January due to the debilitating effects of the drugs on her body. Instead, she chooses to continue living her life fully and has been inspiring people all over the world with her bold attitude.
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Woods had a challenging upbringing. "I never really had a childhood," Woods said in a 2018 interview with The Guardian. "My mother went to prison when I was four. I was on my own." By the time her mother, Vonnya-Leah Mason, was released (from a manslaughter charge) in February 2019, her daughter had already been discovered and was gaining momentum … and also had cancer.
Woods gave birth to son Saphir in September 2018, after initially going into labor while walking Rihanna's Savage X Fenty runway show during New York Fashion Week. The baby's dad is fellow model, thirty-year-old Adonis Bosso, who helps co-parent the little boy.
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Melanoma without Chemotherapy
Without treatment, melanoma can be fatal. After the cancer reaches the lymph nodes, as it has in Woods' case, it can then spread to other organs.
"Patients with stage 3 disease probably have a 50/50 chance of being 'ok' with just a surgical resection," Dr. Anna Pavlick, a medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, tells SurvivorNet. "However, we now have brand new medicines, or immunotherapy medicines, that can significantly reduce their risk of it ever coming back."
Woods' cancer was first spotted at a routine dental exam, where her dentist noticed spots in her mouth and had them tested. This is why it is imperative to get regular check-ups with a doctor and dermatologist.
Melanoma Treatment Has ‘Come a Long Way’
How to Protect Yourself from the Sun
Hardcore sunbathing went out of style in the ’80s, and for good reason. Luckily, we hear general guidelines more frequently for skin cancer prevention these days, and there can never be too many reminders to practice caution in the sun.
Dr. Dendy Engelman, a dermatologist and surgeon from Manhattan Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery tells SurvivorNet the top ways to protect yourself from the sun:
- Avoid sun during peak hours, which is 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.
- Wear a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, because we want to protect the tops of our head, and the tops of our ears, and then the delicate area around the eye.
- We need to wear SPF of 30 or highera bare minimum of 30and make sure to reapply every two hours, or after excessive sweating, or after swimming.
- We need to make sure that we have yearly skin checks, because it's difficult to evaluate areas all over the body. And so we need to get a professional to make sure that we're monitoring everything that we should.
- Avoid tanning beds at all costs. There is absolutely no benefit to going to a tanning bed, and it can really significantly increase your risk of melanoma. So if you need to have sun before a big event, that's fine. But make sure it's a sunless tanner.
Top 5 Ways to Protect Your Skin From Skin Cancer
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