PHOTO: Lisa Ray became a sensation after she was discovered by a fashion magazine at age 16. (Photo by Douglas MacRae)

Insight Vacations has a new Global Brand Ambassador: Lisa Ray, a Canadian-born Indian actress and film star.

Ray is a many-faceted phenomenon. Born in Toronto of Indian and Polish ancestry, she spent some of her childhood in the Indian state of West Bengal. When she was 16 she was discovered by a fashion magazine, approached to do a photo shoot and ended up on the cover. She became a sensation, attracting so much attention it led to her being the anchor of the TV show “Star Biz”.

After becoming a successful model she returned to Canada to study journalism, but had to cut it short to return to India to care for her mother after she had been in a car wreck.

She made her film debut in 2001 in the Bollywood film “Kasoor,” in which her voiced was dubbed because she didn’t speak Hindi. In 2005 she appeared in the Canadian Oscar-nominated film “Water.”

Ray has been in 28 films now and can count film star, writer, director, television host, philanthropist and activist among her career stations.

Ray is also known for being a high-profile cancer survivor. In 2009, Ray was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare form of cancer thought to be incurable. She started a blog about being a cancer victim called “The Yellow Diaries.”

On her blog she wrote “I believe it can be cured…  I'm getting better. My prognosis, given my ‘junior’ status and stage of disease, is very good. I'm aiming for full remission.”

At Christmas 2009 she had a stem cell transplant to treat her cancer and in April 2010 she announced that she was cancer free.

After her operation and the success of her treatment Ray became an outspoken advocate for stem cell technology. She did a public service announcement for the McEwan Centre for Regenerative Medicine and a national media tour in Canada to raise public awareness about Multiple Myeloma.

In 2012, Ray was named ambassador for the Pantene Beautiful Lengths campaign in Canada, for providing cancer patients with wigs made from donated hair.

Insight’s choice of Ray as Global Ambassador is connected to Insight’s efforts to promote its India program, which it introduced two years ago.

“We launched our program a couple of years ago to moderate success,” said Phil Capelli. “It’s a phenomenal country, the culture, the people. But it is a challenge selling it, just getting people to go. We have a six star product. It’s really amazing. We’re trying to put a spotlight on it. That’s why we have Lisa Ray.”