Jael Strauss, the America’s Next Top Model contestant who revealed just two months ago that she had breast cancer , died Tuesday morning around 11 a.m. She was under hospice care at the time. And she was 34 years old. Insiders close to Strauss tell TMZ that her condition took a turn for the worse on Monday night, following several days during which Strauss was unconscious. Her family has been allowing visitors to see Jael, however, up until the final few hours of her life. It was clear at that point that the Season 8 hopeful did not have much time remaining. Strauss chose to stop chemotherapy around Halloween and went into hospice on Thanksgiving, writing on Facebook: “First night in hospice. So many things I never knew about life. Or death. So many things.” It was only a month or so before this transition that Strauss wrote a lengthy and emotional message to fans about her Stage IV breast cancer. Likely aware at the time that the diagnosis was fatal, she said: “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.” With this statement, Strauss was referring to a past battling the devastating affects of crystal meth addiction. This was something difficult and personal, and which she addressed publicly in an appearance on Dr. Phil in 2012. In August, just two months before the breast cancer diagnosis, Strauss celebrated five years of sobriety. This is what she wrote on Instagram in tribute to herself, her situation and all those who helped her along the way: I know a few things to be true: Miracles are real, Recovery is possible for everyone no matter how far gone you think you are, We are never too broken to be put back together. Service work feels better than the greatest high. Sobriety makes you weirder not normal and I’d be dead if it weren’t for all the love and forgiveness I’ve been showered with by my friends and family. View Slideshow: The Most Shocking Reality Star Deaths: Gone, But Not Forgotten A GoFundMe was opened for Strauss about a month ago that has thus far raised more than $18,000 to fund her treatment. SAid Jael’s family and friends to TMZ in a statement: “The one blessing was that we were able to show her how loved she was before she passed. She brought so much light to people.” As mentioned above, Strauss competed on the eighth season of America’s Next Top Model in 2007 and finished sixth in the competition. May Jael Strauss rest in peace.
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Jael Strauss, America’s Next Top Model Alum, Dead at 34
