Naoual decided to organize a fashion show for women with breast cancer as a means to start feeling better.
Transcript
But when I started chemo, this was the hardest intervention; it’s harder, harder than the surgeries. Yes. When I started the first session of chemo, I wasn’t well at all. And I was too aggressive with the nurses. It was like they were inserting poison in my body, I didn’t accept that at all, not at all. It was catastrophic for me. And at this moment, I started my first session of chemotherapy and this… It’s not easy to remember all the steps.
I started my first session of chemotherapy and I had complications at the level of… my stomach… I had pain at the stomach level. I wasn’t well at all, in every sense really, it was a catastrophe. And at that moment I started to think of making a fashion show in this… I was in my bubble, I wasn’t talking to anyone, but I was thinking of making a fashion show for women, for the survivors or women with breast cancer, that are under treatment, and to help them overcome their grief, their sadness. To make the women live in happiness surrounded by their family, and to give back to the women that had this sickness a little bit of their femininity and self-esteem. Because it is a trying ordeal, it is not easy at all. So I started thinking about that. I started thinking about something that would help me overcome my grief and this is my idea. So I talked to the hospital association. I was undergoing treatment and I started talking with the association and they approved of my idea. They liked it. Every time I was talking to a woman in the waiting room I was saying: “Would you accept to be a model?” “Yes, yes, yes, I would like, etc.” It is… When I see their smile it makes me happy. And this is my experience.
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- Positive effects on self – NaoualNaoual found that her experience changed her perspective. Rather than focusing on her bad fortune, she had chosen a more optimistic approach and was trying to be her best self.
- Challenging emotions – NaoualNaoual decided to organize a fashion show for women with breast cancer as a means to start feeling better.
- Testing and diagnosis – NaoualIt was difficult for Naoual to receive her diagnosis through the phone while she was working.
- Sexuality, femininity and intimacy – NaoualNaoual, who was divorced and went through diagnosis and treatment on her own, has since remarried.
- Physical activity and diet changes – NaoualInforming yourself about what to eat is important, but Naoual felt that she could have been given more information from professionals about her food choices.
- How it affects family and friends – NaoualNaoual, who immigrated from Morocco, made sure to always accept social invitations so that she wasn't so alone.