Mama Cax, a Brooklyn-born advocate for people with disabilities and a rising model who challenged the fashion industry’s standard of beauty by not shying away from displaying her prosthetic leg on the runway and in fashion campaigns, died on Dec. 16 in London. She was 30.

Her agency, Jag Models, confirmed the death, at Royal London Hospital. A cause was not given. Mama Cax, who lived in New York, said on her official Instagram account on Dec. 12 that she had experienced severe abdominal pain while in London and later learned that she had several blood clots. A statement posted on the site said she had spent her last week in the hospital.

“As a cancer survivor, she had grown accustomed to taking on life’s several challenges head on and successfully,” the statement said. “It is with that same grit (fervor) that she fought her last days on earth.”

She was born Cacsmy Brutus on Nov. 20, 1989, in Brooklyn. She studied in New York, France, Tunis and Rome, and had bachelor’s and master’s degrees in international studies, according to her website.