'Human Ken Doll' Celso Santebanes dies at 20 (Photo : Instagram/Celso Santebanes)
The popularly known as Brazil's "Human Ken Doll," Celso Santebanes, has passed away after losing a battle with Leukemia.
The model, 20, who obsessed with looking like a plastic Ken doll contracted bacterial pneumonia during his treatment for a rare case of blood cancer that he was diagnosed with in December last year, according to the New York Daily News.
The model was in hospital at the Uberlandia Clinic Hospital in Brazil receiving treatment when he passed away last week on Thursday evening.
Santebanes was born as Celso Borges Pereira and it was at 15 that he began entering beauty pageants and the resemblance to Mattel's toy Ken doll was drawn by those who saw him.
Having won many beauty pageants together with the opportunity to model propelled Celso to fame where he altered his name to his favorite Mexican sitcom character - Santebañes.
Feeding his obsession to resemble the plastic Ken doll to perfection Santebanes spent thousands of dollars on plastic surgery to perfect his features and straighten his nose and lips, the Latin Times website reported.
The young star eventually came to be identified as Brazil's "Human Ken Doll" and during his career launched his own line of "Celso" dolls modeled after himself which rivaled those of the actual Ken dolls in the market.
It is reported that the youngster dreamed of making a movie with the "Human Barbie" of Ukraine, Valeria Lukyanova.
However, since he was diagnosed with blood cancer last year, media outlets reported that his health deteriorated rapidly and changed his outlook on life and according to the website he said at the time he would not continue with any more plastic surgery but enjoy life.
