Have you ever Googled mastectomy before and after photos? This was the first thing Aniela McGuinness did when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, only to be shocked by the “heartbreaking” images that flashed up on her screen.
The 32-year-old decided then to shoot her own photo series, My Breast Friend, using “humour and honesty” to document the changes to her body and state of mind before, during and after her double mastectomy.
Here are the resulting images – warning, graphic content.
“I decided not to get my nipples reconstructed or tattooed because I enjoy the jokes and freedom I get from not having them.”
“The end of chemo, with my expanders fully inflated, I felt like a Mannequin. My eyebrows had to be airbrushed on and false eyelashes attached to just skin. Every hair on my body was gone.”
“No more Before and After photos. I wanted them to see the Evolution, the Life, and the HUMOR in this dark situation.”
“This photo was taken after the mastectomy and a week before Halloween.”
“I wanted to change the images that women saw of mastectomies.”
