Woman Who Had Preemptive Mastectomy Creates Book About Breast Cancer Survivors

A woman who had preemptive mastectomy has created a powerful book containing photos of herself and other breast cancer survivors to tell their amazing stories.

At 29 years old, Katelyn Carey decided to have a preemptive mastectomy after learning that she had high chances of getting breast cancer after her mother, aunt and great grandmother had died from the disease.

She told Daily Mail Australia that she had been ‘living in fear of the disease from a very young age,’ yet, when it came time to have the mastectomy, Ms Carey felt overwhelmed and unprepared. “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 said, but still, she went under the knife.

She said it was not until three years later when she became comfortable in her body again after her now-husband took some photos of her and her scars.

“It took those photos for me to feel whole and beautiful again.

“So I took them and tried to create something that I thought would have helped me,” she said.

Since then, Ms Carey said that she has spent the next three years meeting other women and men who had gone through mastectomies, interviewing them and photographing them.

The result was a book called Beauty After Breast Cancer, which told the stories of many women, each in their individual way.

Ms Carey said that one woman told her how the book inspired her. The woman said: “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 that the book was a complete labour of love. She said that it has also helped many battling with breast cancer, and added that she receives thank you letters from all over the world.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk