12 Women On What They Wish They’d Known Before Breast Cancer
For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, British designer Stella McCartney has teamed up with Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario to photograph women who have gone through, or are going through, a breast cancer diagnosis. The resulting series of beautiful and deeply moving portraits captures the intricacies of the scars — physical and emotional — that these courageous women bear. As part of the campaign, A Letter to My Loved Ones, Lynsey also joined forces with climate activist, documentary photographer and filmmaker Alice Aedy to create poignant short films in which the women wrote to their children or noted down their favourite recipes to pass on to their families.
Having lost her mother Linda to breast cancer in 1998, the cause is close to McCartney’s heart and her eponymous label has run awareness and fundraising campaigns since 2014. “It pains me every day to have lost one of the most precious humans, my mum Linda, to this horrendous disease,” says McCartney. “I have such a deep admiration and gratitude for these women — both those who shared their moving stories and for Lynsey and Alice, who brought these powerful narratives to life.”
Alongside the stunning photography and short films, Stella McCartney has launched its traditional Breast Cancer Awareness lingerie set as well as the much-loved Louise Listening post-operative bra, with all proceeds going to the breast cancer charities. For the second year running, adidas by Stella McCartney has also launched a sports mastectomy bra, enabling women to engage in activity post-surgery at their own pace. The sustainable brand has given out over 10,000 mastectomy bras through the Stella McCartney Cares Foundation, with more set to be gifted to survivors this year.
Breast cancer is the UK’s most common cancer, with over 55,000 women and 350 men diagnosed annually, but now, more than ever, raising awareness is key. UK charity Breast Cancer Now estimates that during lockdown, nearly 1 million British women missed their mammograms due to breast screening programmes being paused. Vitally, more attention is needed for BAME cancer patients, too, with the Cancer Strategy in England recognising that they often experience poorer levels of support than other groups after treatment.
Ahead, we asked the women photographed for the campaign what they wish they’d known before diagnosis, how their experience has changed their world view, and what they’re hopeful for in 2021.
Mel Bastien
Mel was diagnosed with HER2 triple-positive breast cancer in October 2018, aged 46. She had eight cycles of chemotherapy, a mastectomy, 15 rounds of radiotherapy and 18 cycles of targeted hormone treatment, and completed all her treatment on 13th February 2020.
What do you wish you’d known before you were diagnosed?
I wish I had known how to read my body more, I wish I hadn’t ignored how I was feeling within myself, because I wasn’t feeling too great and I chose to ignore it and care for others instead of myself.
I know it’s crazy to say but part of me felt ashamed. In my community, people were like, “What did you do?” I only told about five or six friends, and my siblings and my mum. And that was it. I told them not to say anything to anyone else, some respected my wishes and some didn’t. My sister had breast cancer and I went to all her chemo sessions, so I’d already experienced what this disease can do to you. Inevitably I was really scared when I got my own diagnosis and I didn’t want to do chemo because I saw how it affected my sister. Doctors wanted to start with chemo to shrink the tumours and insisted that this was the best course of action, so in the end I had chemo. I was then told, although the chemo partially worked, I needed a mastectomy. I was shitting myself, really, because I didn’t know anyone who had had a mastectomy. I didn’t know where to turn and I really felt lost. I didn’t tell my family I was having a mastectomy, they found out when they visited me in hospital, after I had it.
There are six of us siblings. I am the healthiest one of all my siblings and we were still grieving from my dad’s death, so perhaps that’s why I was scared to tell my family. I didn’t know how to tell them. My friend helped me to explain to them.
Has it changed how you see the world?
Before my diagnosis in 2018, I didn’t feel myself. I felt tired, like I needed to have a rest and start again. My friend and I went to Cuba at the end of August 2018 and while putting on my bikini I felt a lump in my right breast. I had had a lump before and had a mammogram but was told it was a cyst. When I was back from holiday, I went to the breast care unit at King’s College Hospital, where they did several scans and said they wanted to investigate further, so they did a biopsy in my breast and armpit. Since my diagnosis, I started yoga.
What are your hopes for 2021?
My hope is to just live every day as happy and positive as I can. To also help, support and empower anyone that is or has gone through cancer and to show them that they can get through it. There are low days and high days but the fact that we can wake up and see another morning is a wonderful thing. I would advise anyone who has been through anything like this to just do what makes you happy and try to enjoy life, because that’s what I intend to do.
Caroline Boore
Caroline was diagnosed with stage 2 grade 3b inflammatory breast cancer, aged 34, in November 2017.
What do you wish you’d known before you were diagnosed?
I wish I had taken checking my breasts more seriously. I wish I had known there were other potential symptoms than a lump. I had no lump, just a swollen breast with a red rash covering it. I wish I hadn’t ignored it, maybe I wouldn’t have secondary cancer now. Who knows? When you’re younger, you feel invincible. My mum and my auntie both had breast cancer; we don’t have the BRACA gene but we have all had it fairly young, so seeing them go through it was a real learning curve when it came to my own diagnosis. I think my quality of life is actually better now, post-diagnosis, and weirdly it makes me want to live more. I want to work. I want to go on vacation and be with my friends. I know I have time but I don’t know how much time I have… I do know that I won’t be here in my 80s, so I think it has given me a new perspective on life, on living it more.
Has it changed how you see the world?
I am only 34 and got diagnosed in December 2017 so I am still very young. When I went in and got my diagnosis from my breast surgeon, all I heard was, “You can’t have children, you’re going to lose your hair.” I went straight into IVF to try to retrieve my eggs but it didn’t pan out and I couldn’t keep it going any longer than one go. What really helped me see things in a positive light was the Facebook group for women under 40, which I took so much out of, and I went to a lot of events with Victoria’s Promise. I can’t tell you how much it helped, speaking with other women who are in similar situations. I really took ownership of it. I never used to speak about anything personal on social media but since I got cancer, I speak out now. I feel it’s so important to speak about my story and educate people, as it’s not something that is discussed enough.
What are your hopes for 2021?
For me personally it’s that my cancer remains stable for as long as possible so I can travel, work, enjoy my family and friends and continue with this blissfully normal, mundane life that I love.
Toral Shah
Toral was diagnosed with breast cancer aged 29.
What do you wish you’d known before you were diagnosed?
When I was studying for my MSc in nutritional medicine specialising in cancer, I found a lump in my breast. It was early stage breast cancer, which was an incredible shock. It made no sense to me. I was under 30, committed to a healthy lifestyle and I was even training for a triathlon. It felt like my world was falling down around me — I felt too young to lose a breast. I was doing my master’s degree at the time but I managed to finish it.
I had an understanding of breast cancer before my diagnosis as my mum was also diagnosed back in 1999. As I was at medical school and doing my BSc in cell biology, I started to think how nutrition and lifestyle could potentially help with recovery from cancer, and it made me wonder why that wasn’t part of the conversation. Given that the research was starting to investigate the link between nutrition, lifestyle and cancer, I decided to leave behind the dream of working in oncology and focus on this new field.
My business, The Urban Kitchen, supports people with optimising their health and preventing disease. Once I got through my treatment, I became even more passionate about health and nutrition, and the impact on how they could prevent breast cancer recurrence, the subject of my MSc thesis and a subject that has always interested me. The more we can educate the public and health professionals, the more we can share the pool of our resources and knowledge. Campaigns like this will help people to have an earlier diagnosis by checking their breasts and make positive lifestyle changes to help prevent all forms of cancer.
I’m sad to say, though, that in September 2018 I was diagnosed with a recurrence of my original breast cancer. I found this by knowing my body and checking both breasts thoroughly every month. The old mastectomy scar didn’t feel right and I had an MRI scan which found a very tiny lump. I have had a lumpectomy and have started hormone treatment again. I am currently being monitored to ensure that the cancer doesn’t return.
My diagnosis also made me realise how important your support network is. When I was diagnosed in 2006, we hardly heard of younger women getting breast cancer, so I felt very isolated and alone. My friends were great but of course they couldn’t truly understand what I was going through. Luckily I found a great team at The Royal Marsden that offered the most wonderful advice and a younger women’s support group at Breast Cancer Haven who were an incredible support — some of whom are still great friends.
Has it changed how you see the world?
After my diagnosis, I threw myself into self-development and trying to unravel why I felt so floored by the cancer. I was already training for a half triathlon but applied for the London triathlon Olympic distance so that I had something to focus on other than cancer. I trained throughout my surgery and treatment and was able to complete this despite the challenges!
Due to the type of breast cancer I had and that it was diagnosed early, I didn’t have to have chemotherapy or radiotherapy but had to have hormone treatment to stop the growth of the cancer. Sadly, I had really bad side effects which completely made me feel like life wasn’t worth living. I wanted to have a complete change of scenery so moved to Chamonix for a ski season and worked as a chef, which made me reconsider life in a new way.
I work as a nutritionist and functional medicine practitioner which means I can support people and cancer patients to optimise their health and help to reduce the risk of diseases such as cancer. I also do lots of educational talks on diet, lifestyle and cancer for lots of communities, particularly BAME communities, which have poorer cancer outcomes. I love that I am able to give back to the world. I’ve never thought that I would die from breast cancer but I do want to minimise my risk of recurrence and share my understanding of the scientific and medical evidence with others in the same position to help them move forward.
What are your hopes for 2021?
According to Cancer Research UK, over 2 million people are awaiting cancer screening, tests and treatments. Delays in cancer screening are responsible for the bulk of the backlog due to a pause in screening services. Given that we know that early diagnosis is so important for health outcome in cancer, I would like to know when cancer services are going to be resumed. All aspects of cancer care are being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic — screening, diagnosis, cancer treatment for both primary and secondary cancers. Every week, 7,000 people are not being referred for further tests and approx 380 cancers are not being diagnosed through screening programmes. Treatment and surgery are being paused and delayed all over the country. My own reconstruction and further surveillance are being postponed, which is both frustrating and scary.
I know that these delays are affecting so many people I know. I’ve lost too many friends this year. But the biggest impact of this will be felt on marginalised communities, especially those from BAME [backgrounds]. There is going to be an increased cost in terms of cancer deaths and extra treatment. My hope is that cancer services are resumed fully as soon as possible so we don’t lose the 36,000 people that are projected to die from the lack of services.
Jane Hutchinson
Jane founded the HELLO BEAUTIFUL FOUNDATION after her own diagnosis with breast cancer. Through its wellness space in Bloomsbury, it offers free holistic treatments, self-help workshops and counselling sessions to people with cancer.
The foundation has collaborated with Stella McCartney on a wide variety of events to help the women and families that have been affected by the disease. “She has been hugely supportive of our movement over the last six years and we are extremely grateful for her and the team in all they do to help others,” Jane says.
What do you wish you’d known before you were diagnosed?
I wish I had known all of the ways that I could reduce the chances of being diagnosed with cancer and the lifestyle changes that I could have taken on board even from a young age to strengthen my mind and body on a cellular level. I wish I had known the healing effects of organic plant-based foods (to boost the immune system), the benefits of Qi Gong and breathing techniques (to help the lymphatic system) and mindful meditation practices (to help release stress and tension).
Has it changed how you see the world?
After being diagnosed with cancer I became more conscious of how we treat ourselves, how we treat each other and how we treat the world that we live in. Self love is an important foundation to have. Supporting others with love helps to release our own attachment to ego. This in turn encourages us to look after the planet and become more sustainable in our approach to life.
What are your hopes for 2021?
Prevention has been a major focal point for the HELLO BEAUTIFUL FOUNDATION since the beginning. I hope that society takes the events of 2020 as a wake-up call for paying attention to health and wellness. So many elements of life are cumulative. For example, eating healthy over time works better than getting ill and then finally starting to eat well. It’s never too late but the earlier you get started, the easier it will be.
Sharon Marshall-Green
Sharon was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in May 2016, 18 days before her 45th birthday. Treatment included two lumpectomies, eight rounds of chemo, one month of daily radiation and herceptin injections every three weeks for a year. She has to take tamoxifen for five to 10 years.
What do you wish you’d known before you were diagnosed?
I wish I had realised how a lot of the things that stressed me out were really not that important at all!
Has it changed how you see the world?
Since everything has happened, I’ve spent a lot of time reading and learning about health, the impact your environment and products used can [have on] your health and wellbeing. I am now very conscious about the products I use. The majority of everything I use on my skin, what I clean my home with and wash my clothes with is plant-based or organic. I also spend a lot less time stressing about things, especially things that nothing can be done about. It’s been a real journey though.
Following on from my cancer treatment I kept haemorrhaging and had to have a full hysterectomy. So in addition to losing part of a boob, I lost a further part of me. But as much as cancer has been a curse, weirdly enough it has also been a blessing of sorts. It has made me realise what is important in life! I have four incredible, sometimes annoying children that are 31, 25, 18 and 8 years old. Having a young child made me fight even harder to get through it all.
What are your hopes for 2021?
I want to make sure I spend as much time as possible outdoors and in nature in 2021. I have a thing about the sea, it intrigues me how something which can be so peaceful and serene can also be so deadly. I want to spend more time grounding. My youngest son and I hate shoes, we love to feel the ground underneath our feet. It is like being naturally recharged via nature. I also started writing this little personal book — let’s call it ‘Instructions to my Husband’ — which explains the day-to-day running of the house so he knows where my insurance documents are, we are with this gas company, that internet provider etc. I also explain things like how to book the after school club — things that I just did, things you usually just take for granted… That’s something I must finish!
Keely Joseph
Keely has two children and now has secondary breast cancer. She had a single mastectomy and reconstruction in 2017, and is currently on chemotherapy to control her disease.
What do you wish you’d known before you were diagnosed?
Like most people I was obviously aware of how awful a cancer diagnosis is and that treatment can be gruelling but I never appreciated just how much cancer can take away from you. Breast cancer is often seen almost as the glamorous cancer, ‘the one to get’, as described by a friend. The reality is very different. I lost my hair, I gained weight, I was placed into a forced menopause, I lost the ability to have children should I want more, I lost my breast, I lost femininity and I lost myself for a period of time, too. The psychological and emotional impact following a breast cancer diagnosis is devastating and incredibly hard to deal with.
Has it changed how you see the world?
Having breast cancer hasn’t massively changed how I see the world. I think it has given me more focus. I know lots of people, those with cancer and without, for whom having a cancer diagnosis is seen as a second chance to live life to the max and in many ways it is. For me it’s given me the opportunity to have some amazing experiences that I wouldn’t have taken part in, but mostly it’s shown me that there is something so wonderful about the normal, routine, mundane parts of life. I love a duvet day with the kids where we watch film after film and just hang out together. I relish spending time with those that I love. I find so much comfort from my everyday life that I suppose I took for granted before.
What are your hopes for 2021?
2020 has been an incredibly difficult year for me. At the same time the world was dealing with the pandemic, I was told that my cancer had spread and my treatment had stopped working. Since March I’ve had that news a further two times. Each time I’m told that the cancer is still spreading is heartbreaking. I’m now on my fourth line of treatment this year and it’s tough. So for 2021 my hope is simply that I get a stable scan. I would like a small break from the bad news.
Emma Campbell
Emma found herself a single mum of four to Jake, now 17, and triplets Ella, Louis and Theo, now 10, while also facing breast cancer. She was 39 years old when she was diagnosed in 2010, after discovering a lump under her armpit.
What do you wish you’d known before you were diagnosed?
I wish I’d had more access to other women’s stories and seen more positive examples of cancer patients coming through the other side and finding happiness and health once more.
Has it changed how you see the world?
A profound sense of appreciation and gratitude is at the core of everything for me now. Living with cancer in the long term has ignited in me a passion to live the biggest, boldest life I can. I feel a sense of urgency, not because time is necessarily running out but because I actively seek out joy where I can. I want to say ‘yes’ to everything and go some way towards making up for what felt like ‘lost’ years in my 20s and 30s. I’m part of an incredible online community of women who are all going through similar experiences. The grief, the loss, the fear but the hope too. We connect on so many levels and that connection has been transformative in terms of adjusting to living with cancer. I changed my Instagram handle to @limitless_em around the time of my third diagnosis at the beginning of 2019. I wanted a daily reminder that I am, we ALL are, limitless in our potential to overcome even the biggest challenges.
My emotions fluctuate, of course. I go through stages of being able to detach from cancer and minimise the space it takes up in my head and life in general. And then at other times — waiting for scan results, for example — the all-consuming fear returns and takes hold and life can feel very dark. That fear never gets easier to handle but I’ve found coping mechanisms which help, whether that be going out for a run and connecting with my body and its strength or simply quietening my mind and breathing through the anxiety, trusting that it will pass.
What are your hopes for 2021?
My hope for 2021, on a personal level, is that I remain well, that cancer only occupies a small space in my life and that I can continue living a limitless life full of hope and expansion with regular moments of joy.
Lizzi England
Lizzi was diagnosed aged 29 in August 2019, while pregnant with her third child, Violet, now 9 months old. Lizzi has had a single mastectomy without reconstruction.
What do you wish you’d known before you were diagnosed?
I wish I knew that I wouldn’t feel so alone. Unfortunately breast cancer within younger women is far more common than we think. Sharing my cancer journey has connected me with some amazing women who are going through the same struggles. Often having never met these women, we’re all there to support one another and that’s so powerful when taking on cancer!
Has it changed how you see the world?
Cancer has changed the way I see the world in both positive and negative ways. I’m far more open to just living life for the moment, making the most of this ‘one life’ we are gifted to have. Yet I now live in fear — fear that the cancer could return just as easily as it appeared.
What are your hopes for 2021?
With 2020 being a terrible year for most — plans cancelled, families unable to spend time with loved ones — I am looking forward to 2021 but I’m no longer wishing life away, hoping for a better year. There are so many people that won’t live to see 2021 because of metastatic breast cancer, for them I’m enjoying the here and now. May 2021 be an incredible year for all, I intend mine to be… Did I mention I’m also marrying the love of my life?
Nisha Tanna
Nisha was diagnosed with grade 3 stage 3 breast cancer in November 2015. She was diagnosed through the GP, aged 35, when she had a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old.
What do you wish you’d known before you were diagnosed?
Knowing but also living by “It’s okay not to be okay” and that it takes real strength to ask for help.
Has it changed how you see the world?
It has. It’s made me really focus on my diet, my emotional wellbeing, and being more in tune with my body. I believe that my cancer came as a message to me. The changes have been incredibly positive. Despite work being busier than ever, I’ve found exercise has really helped me both physically and emotionally. I work out at home and I’m even able to do push-ups now! I work out about five or six times a week, a combination of rebounding, conditioning and long walks. I’ve done the MoonWalk — a 27-mile walk through the night to raise money for a breast cancer charity. This was a real achievement as at my sickest, I couldn’t walk up the stairs.
I do my best to be the best mother I can and forgive myself when I fall short. We have rituals in place as a family where we practise daily gratitude, eat whole organic foods and find ways to rest, relax and calm the body. We all love audio books and my son loves Sanskrit mantras which help to soothe and calm the mind and body. Once you have faced your mortality with such a diagnosis, you don’t really fear anything else. I’m much more present and live (as much as realistically possible) for the day.
What are your hopes for 2021?
To continue to grow my business, to play, to travel (even if just around the costal towns of the UK) and spend time with those I love. I’ll be happy with that.
Leanne Hughes
Leanne was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in April 2020, aged 31, following a misdiagnosis two years before. Her cancer is hormone-driven so fortunately her treatment is hormone therapy and oral chemotherapy to stabilise the tumours that have spread to her bones and liver, alongside various holistic therapies and lifestyle changes.
What do you wish you’d known before you were diagnosed?
I wish I had known how common breast cancer is in young women! I wish I had known how to really advocate for myself and trust my own intuition. The cancer would have been picked up a lot earlier if I had felt confident enough to really trust my body and push for a second opinion. We are taught to trust other people when it comes to our bodies more than ourselves but really no one knows us better than we do, and I wish more people felt empowered in that way.
Has it changed how you see the world?
My diagnosis gave me permission to look at my life and finally start saying “no” to the things that weren’t working for me, and start living my life the way I really wanted. It made me realise I hadn’t been truly happy in so many areas of my life for a long time and so being diagnosed with a life-shortening disease instantly empowered me to say, “Okay, enough. I need to do whatever feels good to me from now on.” It also gave me the space and freedom to spend time really nurturing myself but also really connecting to the world around me.
Holistic therapies and wellness had always been part of my life but usually as an antidote to the lifestyle I was leading — practising yoga to counteract the stress in my life, eating healthily after a big weekend. But now it’s my baseline and that has really changed everything in the way I live life. With that slower pace of life I am able to really appreciate all the things I am doing, the daily practices, the food I eat. It can be quite a polarising thing to say within the cancer community that you can be grateful for cancer. Although there is nothing nice about having cancer, I am grateful for the lessons living with an incurable disease has taught me and for the fact that since my diagnosis, I have become a much healthier and happier person than I was before.
What are your hopes for 2021?
That I can continue to thrive regardless of what happens with cancer, and that I remain in good health. There are so many plans I have for 2021 and I hope I get to see them come to fruition. I hope for more awareness about breast cancer in young women but even more so around self-empowerment. More awareness about getting to know yourself, supportive therapies, wellbeing and advocating for what is best for you, always. Oh, and a step closer to a cure for cancer!
Louisa Rasmussen
Louisa was diagnosed with incurable secondary breast cancer — ER positive, HER2 positive, right axilla positive, multiple liver metastases — at the age of 34 in April 2017. Three years ago Louisa completed six cycles of EC chemotherapy after which she started palbociclib, chemo in tablet form, and hormone therapy, which consists of a monthly Zoladex injection and daily letrozole tablets. Treatment will continue indefinitely and she currently has no evidence of active disease.
What do you wish you’d known before you were diagnosed?
That it’s okay to slow down, to look after myself a lot more, take more responsibility for my own health, to breathe more slowly, to know what a better life balance was.
Has it changed how you see the world?
I was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and I found out that it had spread to the liver where I had eight tumours. This was just before my 35th birthday. Overnight I changed certain things about how I live my life… I removed all meat and dairy straightaway because it was a hormone-based cancer so it intuitively made sense. I started to meditate like never before. I went through six cycles of a combination EC chemo, which is a very harsh chemo through an IV, and I wore a cold cap to try to save my hair. That took me to September 2017.
I found during treatment that I was completely whacked and bed-bound but then I found a particular breath practice (known as coherent breathing) and yoga nidra, a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping. I remembered from my original yoga teacher training that it helped to relieve stress so I began to practise it and found that it took me to profound states of relaxation. This really helped me deal with the diagnosis. The weekend after chemo finished I decided to train as a yoga nidra teacher and I walked out of the first weekend of training feeling completely blissed out. It’s been empowering seeing the results of what I’ve learned the past three years and by focusing more on myself, like I never have before, has allowed me to thrive in the circumstances.
What are your hopes for 2021?
Personally, my hope for 2021 is to continue to be clear of the disease and to live well. I am on a mission to help a million people breathe better! You can follow my mission at @louisa.breathebalancebe and breathebalancebe.com. After all, the breath is our number one nutrient and is often overlooked. Breathing slowly and taking time to really let go and find calm in the chaos has been so powerful and beneficial and I hope that it will help many, many others.
Gemma Longland
Gemma from Sutton, was diagnosed aged 35. She found a tiny change to her right breast when checking in the shower. It was so small she almost ignored it but when diagnosed it turned out to be a 6cm tumour that had already spread to her lymph nodes.
What do you wish you’d known before you were diagnosed?
I wish I had checked myself more regularly before I was diagnosed, I wish I had found my cancer earlier to give me a higher chance of survival. Despite being in remission I will always be classed as high risk for the cancer coming back, which is a hard fact to deal with sometimes.
Has it changed how you see the world?
It’s definitely changed my view on the world. I realise health and happiness are all that really matter and I always make the most of every moment in life. Facing my own mortality at 35 made me realise that life is a gift and we should make the most of every moment.
What are your hopes for 2021?
My hope for 2021 is that we can all go back to some sort of normality after one hell of a year. That we can start to live again and see families and friends, hug, travel and make some wonderful memories.
Originally published at https://www.refinery29.com.
