I’ve been incredibly lucky to meet some inspiring women during my travels. One such lady is Jasmine. We worked together in Australia before I ran away to join the circus and she took a gap year in the UK. It was whilst working in London that she suffered a knee injury and upon returning home was diagnosed with cancer. After successful treatment, and determined not to be defined by or ashamed of her scar, Jasmine set up ‘Scar Stories’ which aims to empower teens and young people with cancer by photographing them and their scars. The photos are stunning and I highly recommend you take some time to view them here. Not content with setting up photo shoots, she’s also developed Scar Stories to include documentaries, exhibitions, a festival and creative projects to help young cancer patients and survivors. She’s one busy lady!
I originally interviewed Jasmine back in 2012 and sadly her original interview was lost when I lost my old website but she’s kindly sent through an update which you can read below.
The last 5 years has been a whirlwind of portraits, TV appearances, marketing strategies and beautiful stories. Scar Stories continues to provide photoshoots to young adult cancer patients and survivors and an avenue to tell their stories, along with a few new projects – free creative workshops and our favourite side project, RockScars! Scar Stories released a book in 2014 which is the epitome of the Scar Stories mission – it is designed to help cancer survivors see their scars and experiences in a new light; one that is empowering and beautiful. It is also an opportunity to raise awareness about young adult cancer. The young adult age group has been in the media recently in Australia for a number of reasons – fertility preservation one of them. This is just one example of how this age group has unique needs and why it needs specialist attention.
In personal news, I recently got engaged to the most fantastic man! Wedding planning has taken up most of my spare time (along with work and studying my Masters in Social Work as well!!), so I am now heavily relying on my dedicated team of volunteers to ensure Scar Stories keeps providing support to our participants.
The Scar Stories book is our main fundraising item and is on sale through our website for just $25″