Cancer Patient Dayna Christison Turns Model After Losing Her Hair: ‘You Can Still Show Yourself to the World and Be Okay’

With her shaved head, piercing eyes, and strong cheekbones, it’s no surprise that Dayna Christison is making a name for herself in the modeling world. But the reason for her buzzed head is more than just fashion – Christison has been living with lymphoma for the last two years.

After multiple rounds of chemotherapy left her bald, Christison couldn’t find any good, hair-free female role models – so she set out to become one for others.

“I was looking for something, anything, to feel better about how I looked, and I couldn’t find it,” she tells PEOPLE. “I wanted to show people that even when you’re going through something so dramatic, and so life-changing, and you can still show yourself to the world and be okay.”

Christison was diagnosed with Nodular Sclerosis Hodgkin Lymphoma in February 2013, but only after she fought her doctor for a full examination.

“I had a cough for about eight months, I had night sweats, and I was tired all the time. I though it was bronchitis or something, so I went to the doctor. He thought my airway sounded fine so he said I was good to go,” Christison explains. “And I was like, ‘Wait, I’m still coughing. I’m not leaving until you do something about my cough, because hasn’t stopped for 8 months.’

“He finally gave me a chest x-ray, and I’m so glad I insisted on it, because it turned out that I had lymphoma,” she says.

Christison went through increasingly tougher rounds of chemo to shrink the tumors on her lungs, which left her weak and caused her hair to fall out. When it was clear that the chemotherapy wasn’t enough, Christison agreed to stem cell transplants that required living in isolation at the hospital for a month each time.