Former SI Swimsuit Model Who Had Brain Tumor Has Advice for Isabella Strahan: ‘Don't Let an Illness Stop You’ (Exclusive)

Victoria DeHart Vesce was a model and NBA dancer for the Charlotte Hornets when she started experiencing strange symptoms like hearing loss and bleeding in her right ear.

After months of being told that her hearing problems and migraines were due to an ear infection, doctors sent her for a CT scan. At just 24 years old, she was diagnosed with multiple paraganglioma, which, according to the Mayo Clinic, is a non-cancerous brain and skull tumor that arises from a certain type of nerve cell.

“My heart dropped,” she tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview for May’s Brain Tumor Awareness Month. Although the tumors are usually benign, Vesce says hers had spread to the carotid artery and were so large they were life-threatening.

The influencer, now 31, remembers being told she had to stop dancing the day she was diagnosed.

She immediately underwent surgery to remove the tumor and after six weeks of recovery underwent an experimental treatment that required 31 rounds of radiation at Duke University Hospital.

Viktorija Vesce in the hospital.

Victoria Vesce/Instagram

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She says the combination of her faith and daily affirmations helped her through the inevitable bad days.

Vesce would look in the mirror and say, “My name is Victoria. I’m going to win this,” she recalls, adding, “That’s all I had. I just kept at it.”

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Within a few months of the radiation process, Vesce started to feel better and got a job as a Monster Energy girl, which she still works today. She went to the field on weekends when she did not have appointments for treatment.

But when it came time to restart her modeling career full force, the travel vlogger admits she was a little nervous about being “relevant” again.

Victoria Vesce.

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“The industry is a bit shallow, so you have to be honest with everyone,” says Vesce. She remembers being surprised by some people’s reactions to the prominent scar on her neck.

“A lot of people say, ‘Hey, we can cover this up,'” she recalls. “I say, ‘Why? I don’t want to do it.’ I would notice when I started filming again, people would photoshop my scar a lot.”

And while she believes the modeling industry is getting better at accepting different body types, she wishes there was more respect for an individual’s history.

“Wait, why are you so desperate to cover up my scar?” Vesce remembers thinking. “I just went through this whole thing and I just got revived.”

The scar on Victoria Vesca’s neck.

Victoria Vesce/Instagram

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Vesce also shared words of encouragement for Michael Strahan’s daughter Isabella, 19, who is battling a brain tumor.

Like Vesca, the teenager also started a career in modeling before the diagnosis.

“I think she’s doing phenomenally sharing her story and still pursuing what she wants,” says Vesce. “So at the end of the day, don’t let your illness stop you. For her, anybody, don’t let your illness stop you.”

Isabella Strahan.

Isabella Strahan/Instagram

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Vesce says Isabella is “stunning” and once she’s physically fit to model – whether she’s still in treatment or not – brands should consider her.

One of Vesca’s dreams came true in 2022 when she was a novice in Sports Illustratedannual edition of swimwear.

She recalls feeling like “everything I’ve been working for and stressing about [for] because my brain tumor” was coming back into her life.

“It’s something I always appreciate,” she adds of her experience working with the “iconic” brand on the campaign, shot in the Dominican Republic.

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Victoria Vesce.

Courtesy of Victoria Vesca

Today, Vesce is deaf in her left ear due to a tumor, but just five years after her diagnosis, she received a health assessment from a doctor.

She launched her own swimwear line, DeHart Swim, is based in Florida and is looking forward to Miami Swim Week, which is the host city this year from May 29th to June 5th.

“The world needs to hear more stories about people who are over the top,” she says.

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Source: HIS Education