“A cold shower.” This was for Bianca Balti scroll through the photos of 2025 and write it herself on Substackin a long post in which he talks about a difficult year. “January was a total disaster – he begins – The last two cycles of chemotherapy, by far the hardest. The fires in Los Angeles. The question of whether my relationship could survive the distance. It all happened in the space of a few days.” In September 2024 the model discovered that she had stage three ovarian cancer and she shared the journey she faced on several occasions, helping many in her situation to feel less alone.
The story of 2025 continues with February: “There was no time to process what had just happened with my cancer diagnosis. There was the Sanremo Festival and fashion week, and I was desperate to get back to normal. Since the last round of chemo I passed, in the space of a few days, to the largest television program in Italy. Twelve million people watched me go back to work with my head shaved. It was like a tornado, one of those that doesn’t give you time to think. At the time it seemed like a blessing. Now I’m not so sure anymore.” Balti defines March as “strange”, because, she explains, “after two extreme months – one dedicated to survival, the other to remaining constantly busy – I felt lost. The attention and care I had received during therapy from my partner was over. In February I had worked non-stop in Italy and he was always by my side. Suddenly I was back in Los Angeles, alone“.
The model says she has started treatment with PARP inhibitors, Lynparza, “four pills a day”two days before March 17, the date of his birthday. Then April, “started with a severe and painful eye infection. I flew to Milan for work wearing sunglasses to hide it. From Milan, my partner and I returned to Los Angeles to pick up my daughters and the next day we left together for Tokyowith a stopover in Canada, while I was sick from the pills.” And Balti explains how the PARP inhibitors made her feel “worse than chemotherapy”: “Japan was my daughters’ dream. It was also Mia’s birthday. They had a lot of fun. I do not. I felt more and more empty.”
Months passed and the model understood that her “physical exhaustion was largely mental”. The story on Substack is direct, sincere, and leaves nothing out. July arrives: “When I returned to the United States on July 6 to apply for a visa, I collapsed. In the hospital my oncologist told me he was moving in another facility. I started crying and didn’t stop for weeks”. From there the decision made with the psycho-oncologist to go back to estrogen patches, the death of my aunt (“I felt an immense sense of loss”), and August, the month of a “definitive decision: no more jobs without a contract. I chose to work only with brands willing to commit in the long term, not occasional collaborations, but annual partnerships, even if this meant earning less in the short term.”
What do you expect from the future, Balti? “I’m 41. I’m a single mother of two daughters. I’m changing careers. I stand by brands. I take a stand on my worth. I take risks that feel necessary and terrifying. I’ve never lived in fear. After 2025, I feel full of fear. I have never been pessimistic. After 2025, I’m not always sure where to look to find optimism. Maybe it lies in this simple truth: even though 2025 was very hard, I’m still standing. Standing, with tears in my eyes. But still here. And I know this: the key to survival is gratitude. So today is a day for mourning. Tomorrow, January 1st, is a day to rise. I will rewrite this story starting from gratitude.”
