Miroslava Duma Announces She Has Rare Lung Disease

Layla Ilchi

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Miroslava Duma has announced she’s battling a rare lung disease.

The Russian fashion influencer revealed the news in a lengthy Instagram post Sunday where she writes that she was diagnosed with a rare lung disease earlier in the year and was given seven months to live.

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“It was crazy scary then, but looking back I realize that the past few months of recovery were possibly the happiest months of my entire life,” she writes in the post. “I suddenly stopped running the marathon and realized how much I love life, how beautiful our world is and how much I want to stay here. With the people I love.”

Earlier this year I was diagnosed with a rare lung disease, and given 7 months to live. It was crazy scary then, but looking back, I realise that the past few months of recovery were possibly the happiest months of my entire life. I suddenly stopped running the marathon and realized how much I love life, how beautiful our world is and how much I want to stay here. With the people I love. For the first time in my life, I saw the bright blue of the skies. And the beautiful green of the trees. As if I had lived on a different planet before. I wake up happy, just because I can spend one more day here. Not asking for more or trying to run faster. My entire life I was seeking approval and obsessing over “likes” both in the physical and virtual worlds, without realizing that I actually had to learn how to “like” myself first. Years of self criticism and doubt, stress, dieting, physically, mentally and emotionally pushing and pushing myself got my immune system to collapse and I had made myself fatally sick. I now realise that these past months were also the most creative months of my entire 34 years. Yet success to me today is not measured by external indicators anymore, but by what’s inside. It is measured by my own health, and the health of those I love. It is measured by how I choose to contribute to the world. For the past 2 years, the Universe caused me to experience a number of remarkably serendipitous events that sometimes felt surreal; like how a silly mistake, made by my lawyer, led me to an early diagnosis, and gave me a chance to live. I saw signs everywhere. As if someone was telling me: “don’t give up”. Today I continue to follow my big dream, and genuinely believe it can help save our planet. No matter what. And against all odds. One day I hope I’ll be able to tell you all about it. And most importantly: Thank you to all the wonderful people in my life, I love you with all my heart (and my lungs 🤓).

A post shared by Miroslava Duma (@miraduma) on Dec 1, 2019 at 7:08am PST

It’s unclear if Duma is still battling the disease and when she was diagnosed, however, the 34-year-old uses the post to show that the diagnosis has altered her mind-set on what’s most important to her.

“My entire life I was seeking approval and obsessing over ‘likes’ both in the physical and virtual worlds, without realizing that I actually had to learn how to ‘like’ myself first,” she continued. “Years of self-criticism and doubt, stress, dieting, physically, mentally and emotionally pushing and pushing myself got my immune system to collapse and I had made myself fatally sick.”

Despite her illness, Duma has remained active on social media, posting Instagram photos of her kids and raising awareness on climate change through her sustainable fashion company, Future Tech Lab.

She’s mostly kept out of the headlines since early 2018 when she was embroiled in controversy over an Instagram Story she posted that showed a card that read “to my Ni**as in Paris,” from designer Ulyana Sergeenko. Duma issued an apology for the post, but received backlash from many famous figures including Naomi Campbell and Bryanboy.

Duma also came under fire for transphobic and homophobic comments she made during a “Fashion in the Internet Era” lecture held in Moscow, where she talked about her dislike for men wearing feminine attire. Two months after the controversy, Duma left Buro 24/7, selling her stake in the media company.

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