After Elizaveta lost 95% of her jaw to cancer, doctors advised her to get an abortion before starting chemo – she refused. This is an inspiring montage of her scars and her strength.

Elizaveta Bulokhova, from Ontario, Canada, was only 24-years-old and pregnant with her son Valentin in October when she learned she had osteosarcoma in her jawbone.

After an excruciating 16-hour surgery to remove the tumor and the surrounding area, followed by reconstruction, the model was told to terminate her pregnancy before undergoing chemotherapy. However, her wounds were slow to heal, causing delays in her chemo schedule and miraculously allowing her to give birth to her son 10 weeks early.

Photographer Manolo Ceron created this series of stunning photos highlighting Elizaveta’s scars – and her strength.

Surgeons used some of the fibula bone from her right leg, as well as nerve and skin tissue harvest from her leg, arm, hip and shoulder, to reconstruct her jawbone.

It’s hard to put one core message in it, but there’s a lot of hope and strength and there are a lot of cancer survivors out there who might take something from this, and maybe that’s what the underlying message is…