Vaishnavi Poovanedran is no ordinary woman. She has beaten cancer not once, but twice. Better known as Navi Indran Pillai, the Indian-origin Malaysian is smashing stereotypes with her powerful photo series on Instagram.
Viashnavi was only 22 when she was diagnosed with third stage breast cancer in 2013. After a lumpectomy and several sessions of chemo therapy, she was declared cancer-free in 2015. When she had thought she was cancer-free, it returned and this time spread to her liver and backbone. After many sessions of chemotherapy, she beat cancer again in December 2018.
But Vaishnavi hasn’t let the tumour bog her down, rather deciding to celebrate herself with a bridal photoshoot to inspire cancer survivors to embrace themselves and their transformation while fighting the disease.
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“For me, as a cancer survivor, I dreamt the day I marry the love of my life. Dreamt, what it is like to look like a bride, to feel like a bride. Having gone through cancer treatments (chemotherapy, etc.), losing my hair was by far the hardest thing I ever had to go through. 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. So here it is, *Bold Indian Bride*” she wrote in her instagram post.
What steals the show in the photoshoot, is the sheer joy in Vaishnavi’s face.
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“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 wrote. She revealed how many brides postpone or even cancel their wedding dates because they wouldn’t look like a quintessential bride.
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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.
