Warning: Graphic content.
A breast cancer survivor is reminding people of the ugly truth of the difficult battle that women with the disease have to fight.
Jenn Alter, 36, had radiation treatment for 35 days to treat her breast cancer in 2o13, which left her with burnt skin, scarring and a lot of pain.
Alter is keen to remind people that the cause is more than the glamorised #NoBraDay hashtag and pink ribbons that people often use to represent the cause.
Alter posted some very real photos from day 35 of her treatment that show the dark and painful side of the disease on her Tumblr. She captioned it ‘Here’s your fucking breast cancer awareness.’
She wrote:
Breast cancer isn’t sexy. It’s not about saving the boobies. It’s not about no bra day, which is really just an excuse for women to post sexy pics of their nipples pressing through their clothes. It’s scars, nausea, pain, bald heads, burnt skin, and broken hearts.
Jenn hoped that her brutally honest images would help people think twice about glamorised social media campaigns this breast cancer awareness month.
Mashable reports that she has been inundated with online support from people who are really appreciative for her sharing her story.
Unfortunately she received a negative comment from someone asking her to remove the photos, but she turned this experience into a positive lesson with another post.
Here’s one of her fans…
Cancer Research estimate that one in eight women and one in 870 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime.
It is a highly prevalent disease in our society, and Jenn highlights a good point in that we often distance ourselves from the reality of disease because it is easier, but this makes us less aware, not more.
