Cancer diagnoses was an eye-opener for me, only now I started to really live. I thank God for every day spent with my kids and family. Every day for me is a gift. I spend more time with my kids doing things, making memories and not just existing. When I found out about my cancer, my first thought was if I die, there is no one in this world that could take better care of my boys (ages 4 & 6) better than me. I’m a photographer and I am always behind the camera, but never in the pictures, I started to worry if they would even remember me. The minute I was all healed up from the surgery – I took them out for pictures. And that gave me an idea to photograph moms going through cancer treatments and their children because I’m sure they had to feel the same way I did. With medical bills piling up not everyone can afford a professional photographer.

With this project I wanted to show all the strong cancer fighters, fighting for their life, to be with their children, cancer can’t stop them from being moms and spending time with their family. Cancer does not discriminate, it doesn’t care if you are a mom, if you have 1 kid or 12.

What I learned from this crazy experience was that I shouldn’t wait to lose weight to take pictures, chances are you will gain another 10 pounds in the next 5 years and think why didn’t I take pictures when I was younger and skinnier. Your kids love you unconditionally, they don’t care if your nails are done or not, or if your grey roots are showing, or if you are bold or wearing a wig. Take pictures and make memories that last a lifetime. And go get tested, especially if you have a family history of cancers. While working on this mother’s day picture series for the past 3 weeks I realized that I don’t want to stop after mother’s day, it feels so good to give back and I'm thankful that God gave me this gift to do so and I will continue photographing local mothers and grandmothers with cancer.