Some of our members might know Shirley as she is a volunteer at ZEBRA, the Breast Cancer Counselling Centre in Duesseldorf, which is a full ECPC Member.
Other people might have seen her last year in Amsterdam at the ECCO Congress:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRBzcfLxNVs/s.bianca
We like her as a person and as an artist and we wanted to share with you her story and her work.
Shirley is a two-time breast cancer survivor, she is Dutch, lives and works in Cologne, Germany.
Her project is disseminating her painted survivorship story “Message of Hope”, to bring solace to cancer patients and to motivate them to unlock their creative potential, which could heal both their soul and body. Her paintings express the myriad of emotions she experienced after being first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000.
After breast conserving surgery with immediate partial reconstruction, she went through chemotherapy and radiation. After her recurrence she started to paint although she had never painted before.
Do not hesitate to share your stories with us, they might inspire other cancer patients.
You can see Shirley’s paintings clicking here.
Message of Hope