- Katelyn Carey has written a new book called Beauty After Breast Cancer
- The breast cancer survivor was inspired by her own mastectomy scar
- She spent three years interviewing women about their cancer stories
- Ms Carey said: ‘Most people live in fear of breast cancer’
Lauren Ingram For Daily Mail Australia
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Katelyn Carey was 29 when she made the decision to have a preemptive mastectomy.
It was a hard but necessary call as her mother, aunt and great grandmother had died from breast cancer, and she had a high chance of getting the disease too.
‘Most people live in fear of breast cancer from when they get diagnosed,’ Ms Carey told Daily Mail Australia
‘I had been living in fear of it from a very young age.’
Beautiful: Katelyn Carey started the project after learning to love her own mastectomy scar
Inspiring: By baring themselves in the book, Ms Carey was hoping the women she photographed could help others overcome the stigma of cancer
But when it came time to have the mastectomy the young woman felt overwhelmed and unprepared.
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She was shown photos and given clinical information, but had so many questions that there were no answers to.
‘How am I going to feel, how am I going to have that conversation with people I’m dating, how long till my body feels like mine again?’ she asked herself.
Healing: Ms Carey thought about her own experiences battling cancer and wanted to create a book that would’ve helped herself
Overwhelmed: While there was a lot of medical information about the mastectomy procedure, Ms Carey still felt questions were unanswered about how it would affect her life
Comfortable: Ms Carey said many survivors struggled to feel comfortable in their own skin after undergoing the procedure
She had the mastectomy done, but it took her three years until she became comfortable in her body again.
The turning point was when her now-husband took some photos of her and her scars.
‘It took those photos for me to feel whole and beautiful again,’ Ms Carey, herself a registered nurse, explained.
‘So I took them and tried to create something that I thought would have helped me.’
The following three years of her life consisted of meeting other women who had gone through mastectomies, interviewing them and photographing them.
Stunning: The book features a stunning series of portraits taken with breast cancer survivors
Supportive: A woman wrote to Ms Carey to thank her for the way the book supported her as she battled cancer
Individual: Just as no battle with cancer was the same, the book told the story of survivors in their individual way
The result was a book called Beauty After Breast Cancer, which told the stories of many women, each in their individual way.
Each photo and story is different, showing individuality and beauty in the women.
It has also helped many women battling with breast cancer, and Ms Carey receives thank you letters from all over the world, she said.
‘One woman told me. “It’s like my own private support group, I pick it up and I don’t feel as alone”.’
‘I describe it as a medical resource book, a letter from your best friend and the mastectomy version of the Sports Illustrated magazine all in one.’
Ms Carey said the book, which took three years to make, was a complete labour of love.
You can buy a copy of the book at the Beauty After Breast Cancer website.
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