Heather “Cougar” Perry
Diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2010, when she was just 34 years old, Heather “Cougar” Perry immediately felt an obligation to document the hardships of recovery and her physical transformation to spread awareness about cancer detection and prevention to the LGBT community. She was found to have the BRCA2 gene mutation, making her five times more likely to develop breast cancer than a woman without the mutation. Her treatment entailed a double mastectomy, four months of chemotherapy, radiation five days a week for six straight weeks and premature menopause. By March 2011, she completed all of her treatments and soon afterward created Champion, a book of photos, documents and journal writings about her experience. “Seeing the different stages of my treatment would help provide a visual understanding to those who are scared or unaware of the process,” says Perry, who aims to represent body diversity and positive body image with her photos. “My objective with Champion is to put a face to cancer patients in the LGBT community. I want to let people know that breast cancer is not discriminatory,” she adds. “And I want to get the message across that nobody is immune to this.”
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