"You can still be beautiful even when you’ve had parts of your body removed."
That is the powerful message from Hannah Foxley, the two-time breast cancer survivor who has posed naked for Cosmopolitan magazine, baring the scars from her mastectomy.
Hannah, who is just 35, hopes her powerful photo-shoot will inspire other women to be body confident before, after and during cancer treatment.
First diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2011, in Hannah had a lumpectomy and eight cycles of chemotherapy. A week before she thought her treatment was going to end, she found a second cancerous lump.
As a result she has a mastectomy and five weeks of radiotherapy. Her treatment, which finished 18 months ago, was successful but she is still being monitored and is on the waiting list for a reconstruction.
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"I was worried about how my body would look and how men would react," she reveals. "But I also realised I still had a fit, healthy body. The only thing that had changed was the clothes I could wear."
"It’s still a shock every time I look in the mirror and see a breast missing," says Hannah. "But I’m proud of my body and what it’s been through – it’s been poisoned, hacked and microwaved, and it’s still looking great."
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Her cancer journey has inspired Hannah to change her life: "I decided I wanted to be in control of my own destiny. When you stare death in the face, you switch off the fear."
"Ten days after my treatment, I quit my job as a financial planner and set up The Women’s Wealth Expert, a consultancy that provides money advice and support for women."
She is also an ambassador for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.
Hannah appears in the March issue of Cosmopolitan, on sale 30th January. Available on Apple newsstand here
To watch Hannah and hear about her body-confidence tips please go to Cosmopolitan.co.uk/amazingbodies
