Ismena is a model in Breast Cancer Care’s Body image campaign

“Then there was my fabulous pair of boobs. I’d been very flat chested at school, a late developer that continued into my early twenties. But by my mid twenties I had this amazing pair of boobs, as I put on a bit of weight I became even more eye-catching! I used them to their full advantage, after being teased so mercilessly when I was younger I wasn’t going to waste this opportunity that nature had given me.

So you can imagine how devastated I was when in the months before my 30th birthday I lost both my hair and left boob. At the time, although it was hard, I coped as I was so focused on staying alive and being a survivor. So thoughts about my image were vain and not as important – once treatment was over though the real uphill struggle to get on with life started. (…)

Over the years I have learnt that what makes me a woman, a proud woman is who I am, how I think and feel, a light that comes from inside me. So while I might not have the usual ‘badges’ of being a woman I have my inner spirit and that’s the one thing cancer can’t take from me.”

the full article by Ismena Clout