Sussex double breast cancer survivor break taboos with film tour
Joanna Callaghan's documentary 'Goodbye Breasts' aims to encourage body acceptance after surgery
A double breast cancer survivor from Sussex is breaking taboos around mastectomies as she tours the UK with a film documenting her experience.
Joanna Callaghan's documentary 'Goodbye Breasts' aims to encourage body acceptance and resilience after undergoing surgery to remove both of her boobs.
She recounts her journey through animation, dance, and even a giant inflatable breast - which she tells Greatest Hits Radio helped her reclaim her post-surgery body:
"I began to explore the idea of when your body is being rendered and imaged and poked and prodded and you're going through tests and scans, it really begins to feel like it doesn't belong to you.
"It's a kind of object of medicine. And in order to take my body back, I wanted to understand better what was happening inside of me."
Her own journey followed her mum and sister's breast cancer diagnoses, with her detecting her first bout of the disease during a pre-emptive scan - and later, a lump which would indicate it had developed again.
"I was in this sort of unique position knowing that I was going to go through this mastectomy and that I had to do it," she explained.
"Therefore I just started to document that experience.
"For me, it was very important that I show that because I think we do talk about breast cancer more and more - but the actual mastectomy is something that's covered over."
The film - which has won multiple awards - also meets other survivors to share their stories.
It'll be showing at the Brighton Komedia on the 14th of April.