Tag: scars

Bodies on show

‘The Ethics of Display: exhibiting vulnerable bodies’ At the Centre for the History of Medicine, the University of Warwick, 21 March 2016 When I signed up for this symposium I was still thinking about the tricky questions thrown up by Lucy Lyons’ ‘Drawing Parallels’ workshop at UCL last year. The experience of that day spent trying…

Read More

Touching the Core

‘If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.’ Gospel of St Thomas I thoroughly enjoyed the Self-portrait without Breasts event at Kings College London on February 24th. A huge…

Read More

Seven-year itch

I can’t quite believe I’m now seven years post-op. What is it about seven years? Some urban myth that every single cell in the body has renewed itself in that time (skin is quick to renew itself in seven days, bones take longer – several to seven years, and it seems most other organs are…

Read More

Home again

I’m back, after an invigorating trip to Boston, Montreal and Toronto. There’s plenty to process as I settle. There’s also another event to prepare for: ‘Self-portrait without Breasts’ at Exeter University on 27 November, by kind invitation of Andy Brown (Director of Creative Writing) for Exeter University’s Medical Humanities Theme and the new Humanities and…

Read More

More goodbyes

Until my risk-reducing surgery in December 2006, I was screened twice a year. That was a lot of mammograms, scans and breast appointments, over the years! When I was finally discharged, six weeks after my operation, it was quite something. 27 January, 2007 The surgeon looked visibly relieved to see me so well and ‘happy’…

Read More