Formerly paralyzed teen hits the runway at NYFW, gets standing ovation

Models don't usually get a standing ovation during fashion week but when Megan Silcott walked the runway for The Art Institutes 2015 show, everyone jumped to their feet.

Silcott, 18, is battling a rare immune system disease that left her paralyzed from the waist down. According to the NY Daily News, doctors said Silcott would never walk again, but the model proved them wrong and took to the catwalk with a walker.

"When I was 16 years old, one night I was out with my friends and I had to come home, I didn't feel that great," Silcott told Yahoo. "I went to bed and I woke up in the morning and I couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't walk."

Stemming from an undiagnosed case of mono, Silcott developed ADEM or Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis which attacked her brain and spine.

The teen worked tirelessly with physical therapists to walk again, and didn't give up her dream of modeling.

Wearing a design by Nina Perdomo, Silcott took down the house this week at Lincoln Center, and she even took a second lap down the catwalk at the end in a wheelchair.

Silcott's Go Fund Me page raised over 10K of her 15K goal to purchase a rehabilitation therapy system bike that isn't covered by insurance. According to the page, 'Megan attends outpatient therapy, massage therapy, botox injections, workout sessions, pool therapy, acupuncture AND practices at home exercises for movement stimulation and strength building.'

With the help of the therapy bike, Megan will be able to do things like get a drivers license and "perform all of the actions we subconsciously take for granted on a daily basis."

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