I Illustrated The Eternal Fight Of A Brave Young Woman Against Her Malignant Melanoma

I'm "Die Elster", a digital artist from Germany. My nickname is German for "the magpie". I love all members of the corvid family so I've choosen this beautiful black and white fellow as my eponym.

Since I was I was a little child I created art. First by drawing later with photography and finally digital manipulations with photoshop. Being creative is my passion, my lifestyle. I cannot live without creating something. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes scary. But sometimes even with a greater meaning in mind...

About two years ago a good friend of mine, Julie, had a diagnosis of a malignant melanoma. It is inoperable so it was her sentence to death. She is currently in a palliative therapy but there is almost no hope. Every day could be her last day. But instead of giving up, she started to fight. The melanoma became her archenemy which she called Bill. So it is Julie vs. Bill. She started fighting. To get all those things finished that she begun - like her studies. And she is still fighting to enjoy all those small things that remain in her short life. To maintain a little bit quality of life between all her treatments in hospital.

Her struggle was worth the effort. With an initial expectation of life of just half a year she mastered to still be alive and living her life with a positive attitude. She fullfillls her dreams of travelling or having a good time with friends. And she is engaged to help other people with cancer.

Although she faces the eternal darkness of a nigh death at any second, she is never surrendered fighting her own body that devours her from inside. I was really impressed by Julies struggle. Although there are moments when she feels weak and the cancer seems to seize control, she never gave up her positive attitude. She has always a smile on her face and deals with her situation by an immense amount of (dark) humor.

Out of my immense respect I asked Julie to collaborated on a little project. To illustrate her struggle and make it visual to both people suffering the same fate and those people who cannot see her fight at the first gaze. Julie is my personal super-heroine. Julie is Cancer Girl, who is in an everlasting battle agains her very own nemesis Malignenta.

I used background pictures by Mercurycode.

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