Hushed voices & red faces
Sarah-Jane is a queer, fat, gyne patient expert from Manchester, UK. She was diagnosed with advanced ovarian and uterine cancer in 2019 after two years of symptoms and being repeatedly sent away from her GP surgery and told to lose weight.
As a gay woman, Sarah-Jane felt invisible due to the language used when she was diagnosed. The side effects from her cancer treatment weren’t adequately explained and she had no idea her ability to feel pleasure and orgasm would be impacted.
She describes her digital story (video) as “about being failed as a woman with gynaecological cancer by the hushed voices and red faces that surround our body intimacy and pleasure”. She describes how the silence around sex and sexuality during and after her cancer treatment affected her, especially as a woman who loves other women.
“They actually cared more about me losing my hair, something that would eventually grow back, than they did over me losing parts of me so deeply linked to my sexual identity as a woman. By not starting important conversations about how cancer changes our bodies as women and our relationship with pleasure right at the start of our surgery and treatment is failing us. I feel like I was lied to by a team I was supposed to be able to trust.”
Sarah-Jane’s story was supported and facilitated by the Macmillan Digital Storytelling Project (Macmillan Cancer Support & The Scottish Book Trust) in partnership with the Cancer, Sex & Intimacy community project, designed and delivered by women for women affected by cancer. This UK-based initiative helps people affected by cancer to tell their stories in their own words.
Image: Marge Bradshaw.
Sarah-Jane’s portrait (above), by Marge Bradshaw, was selected in 2025 as one of 100 winners for Portrait of Britain, the British Journal of Photography’s annual competition. The portrait was subsequently acquired by the Wellcome Collection.
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