Breast Cancer Survivors Celebrated in Photo Series

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time of reflection, action, and hope for many survivors.

This year, photographer Hilary Gauld of Ontario, Canada, is unveiling 'I Want You To Know,' a portrait series that captures the experiences of 31 breast cancer survivors ranging in ages 26 to 73.

Her intent with the project, she says, is to encourage individuals to think about breast cancer risks, be intentional with their health and be the "fiercest advocate" for themselves.

“I would like people just to take this series in,” Gauld, 49, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “As scary as it feels, understand that you do have to get checked. The earlier you do it, the better the outcome."

Gauld was inspired to create the series, which is in collaboration with Dense Breasts Canada, when her friend Ellyn Winters Robinson went through cancer treatment and a double mastectomy in 2022. Gauld recognized that many people dismiss breast cancer awareness campaigns, thinking they're immune to the disease — especially if they have no family history of it.

“I was surprised to learn that 85% of breast cancers have no family history," Gauld tells PEOPLE. "Even people who follow what would be considered a healthy lifestyle can be affected."

“When I started thinking about this series, I really thought about the messages out there that already exist: get to know your body, advocate for yourself," Gauld says. "Those messages we hear all the time. But for someone who's not thinking of themselves as someone that could potentially get breast cancer, those messages can pass them by.” 

One participant in Gauld's series is 40-year-old Nadine McKenzie, who was diagnosed with the breast cancer in September 2022. McKenzie initially dismissed the throbbing in her chest as menstrual discomfort. However, within two weeks, she felt a 7 cm lump. 

After struggling to find clinic availability, she visited the emergency room, enduring an 8-hour wait. Finally, she underwent an ultrasound, followed by a mammogram and biopsy two days later and a CT scan the subsequent week. She was initially diagnosed with Stage III HER2+ PR/ER IDC breast cancer, which progressed to Stage 4 after metastasizing to her lungs.

“I couldn’t believe breast cancer was going to be a part of my story but I also didn’t want it to be someone else’s story,” she says. “I wanted women to look at me, see themselves and get in motion. I felt if I didn’t share my story I was contributing to the narrative. So I started to share my story.” 

Another individual featured in the series is Spencer Hayward, a 52-year-old transgender man who was diagnosed with breast cancer two weeks before his 50th birthday. 

Hayward had been seeking a surgeon for top surgery in April 2021 when he found a lump on his right chest. After a doctor's visit and mammogram on June 29, an aggressive breast cancer was suspected. A biopsy the next day confirmed it, leading to Hayward undergoing a double mastectomy a month later.

“We need to help marginalized groups get the medical care that they deserve, just because they are human beings, first,” Hayward says. “The gender label shouldn't matter, but it does. Every gender has the right to survive breast cancer, and I just hope to be able to help raise awareness for those folks who don't necessarily fit into the cis-het binary.” 

Gauld hopes to reach a wide audience with her work to encourage discourse around the disease. She mentions that working on such a series can be emotionally taxing, but that there's a significant amount of hope and support for everyone involved.

“My feelings of the overall group of people we worked with is just the incredible sense of community,” Gauld tells PEOPLE. “For me, just as an observer, watching them connect with each other and share their own stories together and how this disease really united this group — even though they all come from very different backgrounds and very different stories in life — it just was a very unifying force for all of them.”

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