Cancer survivors empowered by posing nude for calendar

Women who became "breast friends" as they fought cancer say baring all for a calendar left them feeling empowered.

Sally Smart, 53, who shot the images, said many started off too petrified to take their clothes off but ended up feeling like goddesses.

The efforts were aimed at raising money for the cancer centre that treated them in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire.

As well as raising £20,000, the women, aged between 30 and 63, laughed as they came to terms with their experiences.

"After a little while they became more confident in themselves and their bodies," said Sally.

"A lot came in petrified and walked out as goddesses… they've gained confidence and the friendships formed are wonderful."

Sally, a professional photographer from Denbighshire, was treated like the other women at the North Wales Cancer Centre at Glan Clwyd Hospital.

After her own battle, she thought a calendar would be a way of giving something back as well as helping the women to have a positive experience after gruelling treatment sessions.

But it wasn't all laughs - there were almost broken bones as well.

Claire Williams, 49, from Ffynnongroyw, Flintshire, described the hilarity of one shoot in a stable, where she could not get a pair of borrowed riding boots off.

"They had to get some animal lube from the local vet to get them off. It broke the ice, and nearly my leg," she said.

The shoots took place in locations ranging from the privacy of Sally's kitchen to the very public Talacre beach in Flintshire - an experiencing she described as "daunting" for many of them.

"But they quickly got over their shyness," Sally added.

They now call themselves breast friends - Christine Kelly, 60, from Prestatyn, had raised money for the cancer unit before, but admitted she had never imagined baring all for the cause. She said: "When Sally suggested the naked calendar, I thought - 'really'?"

"But we asked some people do you want to join us... it snowballed from there. We had a laugh in every single picture. It's been amazing."

The youngest member of the group is Camilla Hanmer from Llandudno, Conwy, who was just 29 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer after discovering a lump in March last year.

"It wasn't there one day, it was there the next. I wasn't scared to go to the doctors, I thought it would be nothing," she said.

She described the shock at finding out it was a tumour and hopes the calendar will encourage more young women to check their breasts.

"I was still going through treatment at the time (of making the calendar)," she added.

"All these ladies are survivors and they really knew what I was going through. I felt really lucky to have met them."

Her feelings are echoed by Sylvia Armstrong, 54, who is a wig consultant and hairstylist from Prestatyn.  

She knew lots of women with cancer through her work, and then discovered she had breast cancer herself.

"My cancer was in Covid and I didn't have a lot of support," Sylvia said.

"I thought (the calendar) would help me get over what I'd been through.

"The best thing that's come from it apart from raising the money is the support we have from one another."

While they have all been through traumatic times, they have found something positive at the end of it.

As Sally said: "It's not a nice thing we had in common, what we had all been through.

"But now I can say things to these ladies you can't say to anyone."