Your scars are someone’s perfect, and I am here today because I beat Stage 3b Triple Negative Breast Cancer….
Kassandra Nichole Photography out of Vandalia, IL, captured the raw beauty that cancer leaves behind. Not everyone will see these photos as beautiful. Some will be stunned, embarrassed, saddened, yet some will feel proud or empowered. No one can judge your reaction, because in truth, cancer is ugly, and destructive. It is also a topic that people don’t like to discuss when it is staring you right in the face.
For me….This is who I am. I am here today because I beat Stage 3B Triple Negative Breast Cancer. My fight certainly isn’t done, but it will not defeat my will or spirit. It is a new battle each day, with the chaos it has left in its path.
I was approached to talk about my choice I made, and it is actually the one simple thing that took very little thought. Women should understand that beauty comes from within. It comes from our soul, and I refuse to let cancer take that away from me, because it takes too much from everyone. We all have a right to choose what we do to our bodies. My choice, and my breasts I left behind, do not make me any less of a woman, a wife, or a Mother. This is the raw, beautiful truth of me fighting every day.
My lotus tattoo, was created by a very special friend and artist, Trevis Stallard, who owns and operates Epic Ink Tattoo and Piercing in Edwardsville, IL. His family is one of many, that I love and am blessed to share my life. A family among many, that will never know my true gratitude and love they possess for what they did and still do for my family.
He created this artwork of my lotus flowers, purely out of his own exceptional talent. My tattoo isn’t to hide some painful memory, in fact it is to signify that something beautiful can grow out of a very dark, muddy place. I still struggle and grow everyday, but this part of me I am proud to say I conquered. This is me telling cancer that it does not define who I am or what it has taken from me. We are the only ones that control that kind of power.
So if you are a warrior, a survivor, or a beautiful memory to someone. Know that in your darkest days you are not alone, and you are amazingly beautiful.
-Amanda Torbeck
kassandranichole.com 