Wedding or no wedding, most women have at least once dreamt about their wedding day and how they would look like as a bride!
But we cannot even imagine the difficulty cancer survivors have to go through, having been robbed of looking their best on their wedding day.
But this woman in a bridal photoshoot named ‘Bold Indian Bride’ shatters all stereotypes and inspires women to embrace themselves and their transformation while fighting cancer.
Breast cancer survivor Vashnavi Poovanedran, or Navi Indran Pillai as her Instagram reads, took social media by storm when she uploaded a bridal photoshoot meant to inspire cancer survivors who feel they cannot look beautiful on their wedding day.
“Cancer treatments have given us a lot of limitations, robbed us of beauty and taken away our confidence. As little girls, we have always dreamt of what our big day will be like and how we would look like as a bride.”
She revealed how many brides postpone or even cancel their wedding dates because they wouldn’t look like a quintessential bride.
Vashnavi has beaten cancer twice. First was on her breast which she thought had been completely cured after the treatment. But five years later she found that it had spread to her liver and backbone. After a lot of chemotherapy, she was able to beat cancer again!
Even though the journey was a very difficult one, to say the least, she hadn’t given up on life or herself!
She reveals how she always dreamt of marrying the man she loved, how it would be dressing up as a bride, and how the arrival of her big day would feel. But having gone through several treatments and eventually losing all her hair, she was devastated.
“I felt that I was not beautiful enough to be loved and was not beautiful enough to look or ever feel like a bride. Hair, it is our ‘crowning glory’ and having that taken away from you is devastating. But we choose to accept what we have, appreciate what we are and welcome what is coming.”
Through her photoshoot, she wishes to send out a powerful message to thousands of other women stating how cancer should never be the reason to hold oneself back; it shouldn’t be in control of someone’s life.
Vashnavi is such an inspiration to not just cancer survivors but also to millions of other women who have gone through rough transformations and feel they are not beautiful enough. Her message is for everyone!