As a family physician, I meet far too many people who have cancer. Thankfully, I have met a great many survivors too. I met one such woman while doing a home visit for Medicare up in Laconia, New Hampshire. Rosy and buoyant, Shirley Stokes is an inspiration not only because she is a survivor of breast cancer herself but because she supports other women who face similar challenges.

Surviving Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is all too common. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women regardless of race. Odds are you know or will know someone who has to fight breast cancer, a woman who has struggled through treatments to stave off the disease, someone like Shirley Stokes.

Whether we talk about lumpectomies, mastectomies, or radiation, many treatments leave behind scar tissue and deformities over the chest wall. Many women will choose to get breast reconstruction surgery while others will defer to breast prostheses. Some will choose neither, opting to remain breast-free for life.

All of this can impact on a woman’s quality of life, whether through physical pain or emotional scars. Many women consider breasts to be part of their identity, part of their femininity. Some women may feel lost when that is taken from them. Breast cancer survivors need to know how special they are for who they are, that their breasts never defined them, that they define themselves.

Making a Difference

This is what drove Shirley Stokes to reach out with a wonderfully beautiful idea. It all started with the Forest Moon Foundation, a non-profit organization for cancer survivors. They had offered to make a free bust of her bust so to speak, a plastering of the torso, that she could keep as a memento of her body before surgery. A way to honor her past.

That got the wheels turning in Ms. Stokes’ head and before you knew it, she was on a mission. She got 50 women with breast cancer plastered and 50 torsos were painted by an array of local artists. The bedazzled torsos went up for auction with all proceeds benefiting people with breast cancer in need of oncology care at Lakes Region General Hospital in Laconia, New Hampshire.

Ms. Stokes found inspiration in her own personal experience and supported others through a difficult time in their lives. She used it to help people with breast cancer fight their disease and to help them pay for expenses that often get left on the table. Insurance never pays for travel to and from the hospital!

The work speaks for itself — bold, daring, and vibrant. Shirley Stokes stood up to cancer and made a difference in the lives of women in her community. She shows that everybody and every body is beautiful, no matter what changes life throws our way.

The attached photo is one of the many torsos painted by an artist and does not belong to Ms. Stokes.