Influencer Miroslava Duma Was "Given 7 Months to Live" After Rare Lung Disease Diagnosis

Miroslava Duma took to Instagram to share her diagnosis with her followers, writing she was "given 7 months to live" earlier this year. Read her message here.

By Jess Cohen Dec 02, 2019 7:14 PMTags
Miroslava DumaStephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

Miroslava Duma is sharing a very personal message with her fans.

The social media influencer, who currently has 1.6 million followers on Instagram, took to the platform to talk about her health. In her post, Duma writes that she was diagnosed with a rare lung disease earlier this year.

"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," Duma tells her followers. "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."

Duma writes that, for the first time in her life life, she "saw the bright blue of the skies" as well as the "beautiful green of the trees."

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"As if I had lived on a different planet before. I wake up happy, just because I can spend one more day here," she continues. "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," Duma shares. "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," Duma says. "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."

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"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," she shares. "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."

Duma concludes her post with this message, "And most importantly: Thank you to all the wonderful people in my life, I love you with all my heart (and my lungs [nerd face emoji)."