A 26-year-old woman revealed how devastating it was when she was diagnosed with breast cancer just two weeks after her mother was killed by the same disease.
Emma McAuley’s 61-year-old mother had been battling cancer since 2012. When Emma found a lump in her breast and went for tests.
Watch the woman who was diagnosed with cancer just two weeks after her mother died
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She knew she had cancer but she kept it a secret and didn’t reveal it to her mother.
Just two weeks after her mother passed away, she was called to see the results of her own biopsy when she was at her mother’s funeral.
Emma, from Barking, East London, had breast cancer but after five months of chemotherapy and a year of targeted therapy, she was cancer-free.
In August 2018, she had her breasts removed. Later, she shared the pictures of her scars to show the world that she has embraced them.
She said: “My life had already fallen apart and then, just to make sure there was nothing else, it fell apart again. I felt nothing when they first said it was cancer – I was totally numb.”
“I’d just had my mum’s funeral and that sadness can not be beaten. It didn’t even compare.”
Emma says that people assume that she hates her scars but that’s not the truth. She has embraced them and she says they are a part of her body.
She said: “I feel more positive about the skin I’m in than before I got cancer – although I wish it hadn’t taken cancer to reach this place.”
“It’s been a process because your body is really put through the wringer with cancer, but I’m glad to be out the other end and be able to say I love my body, scars included!”
Emmas has created an Instagram account called Behind the Scars where she shares pictures and stories of people with scars to encourage others to embrace their body.
She says: “It was a collection of people all with scars for one reason or another, all under this umbrella of wanting to spread the message of self-acceptance.”
“I’m proud of my scars and I appreciate them. The world tells us not to like them, but I show them off in pictures and I hope that shows others you can love them and be incredibly proud of them.”
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