Singer Anastacia has spoken openly about her battle with breast cancer, in an attempt to raise awareness and funds for research into the disease.
And now the Strictly Come Dancing contestant has also revealed the scars left by her illness, in a new photoshoot with Fault magazine.
Admitting she was “nervous to let people see them,” the star said she wanted to have control over the first images of her scars that hit the media.
“Paparazzi can take a photo of me breathing in and call it a gut or say all the things they want, that doesn’t scare me, but my scars are a part of me and I want to be the one to reveal them,” she told the mag.
And in her classic candid fashion, Anastacia said that in the beginning she “resented” her scars.
Anastacia showed off her breast cancer scars in Fault magazine
“I resented how large they were but I also understood why I needed to go through all the physical changes.
“My scars are part of my journey and a reminder of all the things I went through with my mastectomy.”
Anastacia was forced to pull out of a Strictly dance off after some inflamed scar tissue left her in agony.
“I knew I was physically unable to perform, and I was terrified about what damage I had already done,” she said.
The 48-year-old, originally from Chicago, Illinois, wrote on her twitter page of her ordeal: “cancer borrowed my femininity and I stole it back.”
