Time has healed what Rubens couldn’t.

If you were to look at Rubens’ ‘Samson and Delilah’, completed in 1610, you’d see a painting very similar to this photograph. Except, in Rubens’ work, the model’s nipple shows a sign of breast cancer. Rubens didn’t know this – he simply painted what he saw. The model couldn’t have known either. Her fate is unknown and it’s likely she died from the symptoms. But today, we can recognise the signs of breast cancer. The woman you see now had a double mastectomy and reconstruction after discovering an abnormality in her breasts.

Knowledge beats breast cancer.

You can be breast aware too. Learn the signs at breastcancerfoundation.org.nz