Not many people have the experience of working in health care for nearly three decades and then end up on the other side following a serious diagnosis. Trent University professor Victoria Reid-De Jong worked as a nurse for 26 years, and was in the middle of her Ph.D. research when she learned she had breast cancer.

Today, Prof. Reid-De Jong has beat the disease, but is still going through a healing process, one that she explores openly in a recent article for Chatelaine. She reveals how she is reconciling with the changes to her body, and what she is doing to not only help herself but also other breast cancer survivors transform scars and sorrow into adorned art.

https://www.chatelaine.com/living/real-life-stories/why-i-want-a-mastectomy-tattoo/