"Cancer doesn't choose." A blogger from Vladimir created a photo project to motivate people to fight cancer.
"I am valuable" - фotoproekt blogger and choreographer Lyudmila PashkovskayaThe photographs feature 10 women from the Vladimir region who have overcome or are still battling cancer. The project's goal is to show that cancer is close by, but it can and should be fought.
"At 37, I felt a lump in my breast. It turned out to be a fibroadenoma. I had a biopsy and heard it like a bolt from the blue—breast cancer. Now I'm a peer consultant in oncology and can calmly talk about the dreaded word cancer, but back then, I imagined my husband with another woman, my children with someone else's mother, and myself dying in agony, my balcony renovations unfinished." She spoke about her experience of treatment.
According to Pashkovskaya, when she wrote about her illness online, she received words of support, but also "a ton of hate." So she decided to fight the stigma surrounding the disease and the many myths surrounding it:They say cancer is a disease of the sad and doesn't come to the happy. Don't believe it! Cancer doesn't choose.
The photo project isn't Pashkovskaya's only idea for supporting people with cancer. She plans to develop incentive packages and events for the Vladimir Oncology Center, as well as rehabilitation programs for those in remission. She also plans to expand the "Pink October" educational concert—an event held during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, in which Vladimir clinics participate.
The photo exhibition opened today, February 1st. A meeting of the featured artists with Vladimir residents is scheduled for February 4th.
A cancer diagnosis is not a death sentence. NeMoskva published stories of peopleher, who have overcome this disease and continue to live.
Photo: Lyudmila Pashkovskaya
