Andrea paints a picture of hope

Sep 22 2007 by Hannah Davies, The Journal

Andrea Marrion has turned her experience of breast cancer around to raise awareness in a very individual way, as she tells Hannah Davies.

BREAST cancer patients normally keep the details of their illness under wraps. Treatment for the disease can often involve the loss of emblems of a woman’s femininity; chemotherapy means hair loss, a mastectomy, the loss of one or both breasts.

“It changes your life for ever,” explains Andrea Marrion, a shy woman in her early 40s.

“You can’t be faced with something so serious and not have your life alter as a result.”

Andrea was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004.

Her twin daughters, Olivia and Lucia, were just six when she was diagnosed and Andrea was terrified by what it might mean.

She received great support from her family – husband Phil, 39, an exhibition and retail designer, and her father, Terrence Laws, 71, the retired former boss of Marine Engineering.

But even the most supportive families cannot understand exactly what a person who is suffering from breast cancer goes through.

It was while she was sitting waiting for the results of her lumpectomy that Andrea came up with the idea for a series of portraits which would explode some myths about breast cancer.

Her series of 18 portraits have given a human face to those who have had to deal with cancer as well as those involved in treating it.

The people painted all have something to do with the illness; a breast cancer nurse, a surgeon.

But the most poignant stories are those of the people who have themselves suffered from the illness.

A young mother who has since tragically died, a male breast cancer patient, women who have had mastectomies and lumpectomies.

Andrea says: “If I’d known after the original diagnosis of cancer what I know now then I don’t think I would have been so scared.”

It was actually October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month which helped Andrea to realise she could have cancer.

“I had a discharge from my nipples,” she explains, “and I was watching a daytime TV programme which explained that could be one of the symptoms.

“I knew something was wrong so I went to the doctor.”

A mammogram was clear but a further biopsy revealed the cancer.

“As first I was just really, really shocked,” Andrea recalls.

“The first thing you think, is are you going to die.

“I think that’s a lot of people’s first reactions. But then after talking to my doctors I realised it wasn’t a death sentence.”

Karen felt a myriad of other emotions. Anger was a prominent one.

“I felt I was far too young at 38 to get breast cancer.

“I had young children at school and it just felt so unfair – but that’s unhelpful thinking and a great many people have had it a lot worse than me.”

Luckily Karen’s cancer was caught early.

“It was in my ducts which means, with the mastectomy, the chances are very high I will never get it again,” she smiles. “I’ve come off lightly compared to other people I know.”

Not many people would classify having a mastectomy as getting off “lightly” but this is something Andrea is keen to talk about.

She feels that if she had had the chance to see such portraits when she first had her diagnosis, she may have felt less anxious.

“You have ideas you will be a very different person, you feel your femininity has been stripped away,” she says.

Reconstructive surgery shortly after her mastectomy meant, Andrea explains, that her confidence was swiftly restored. And something else came out of her terrible experience.

“It gave me the chance to do what I wanted to do,” adds the former office worker who is now a full-time artist.

“I know it’s a cliché but I really did start to look at my life and to realise how important it is to follow what you want to do.”

Andrea explains that people reacted in hugely different ways to the news.

“Some were great and some people freaked out,” she remembers.

“I’d have other mothers in the playground treating me as if I was just going to drop down there and then.

“I wanted to say to them, ‘I’m going to be fine, it’s an operation.’

“Cancer is so different now to what it used to be – treatment is so advanced.”

Andrea’s sitters mainly came from a breast cancer support group run by specialist Karen Bell.

Originally based in the Nuffield Hospital the monthly group meetings bring together people who are being treated for breast cancer.

Andrea spoke to Karen about her idea of doing a series of portraits.

Karen encouraged her and kindly wrote to the people she thought would be interested in participating.

All 18 of the people Karen wrote to were happy to have their portraits painted.

Andrea explains: “I knew them from the meetings with Karen so it wasn’t like I was just coming to them blind.

“We all met up at the group and I took a series of photographs of them all.

“I was so pleased and surprised they all agreed to take part – I know I would have found it hard.”

With her 18 sitters Karen has managed to achieve a cross section of breast cancer sufferers.

There are women from their 30s to 70s and from many different backgrounds.

“The reason I am doing this is to make people more aware of the full story of breast cancer,” Andrea adds.

“The most important thing from the portraits is to raise awareness about breast cancer, its effects and its treatment.”

“We want to raise as much money as possible for breast cancer care to make sure Karen can keep the group running for the breast cancer survivors. We’ve had to move from the Nuffield and so Karen has to find a different place every month where we can hold the meeting.”

There are also plans to turn the portraits into a book, but these are at an early stage at the moment.

Andrea is delighted with how the portraits have turned out and hopes her sitters will be as well.

“I think there is a lot of awareness out there and it needs to stay there, the profile needs to stay high,” she adds.

“I knew something was seriously wrong with me because of awareness raising in the media and so I’m delighted I can help in my own small way.”