SAN ANTONIO -- At 37 years of age, shortly after celebrating New Year’s Day last year, Alex heard the whisper of an ultrasound tech say under her breathe--“It doesn’t look good.”

• Group of women look to spread breast cancer awareness
• Shows runs at Blue Star Arts Complex through Friday

Together with her husband in 2017, Karen was planning the next chapter in her life, as their kids were moving away for college. Instead, a doctor’s letter placed their future on hold.

 

A woman named Karen laughs during a photo shoot part of The Claire Project (Courtesy: Nancie J Photography)

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Then there’s Claire--only 29 years old. Her body now is home to scars which stretch across her chest. They’re evidence of a double mastectomy.

Claire recently had her second born--baby Elliott. In a picture taken by Nancie Jimenez, the mother looks down smiling at her older son Oliver. You can see the joy on Claire’s face, happy to be alive.

 

A woman named Claire lays down in a photo with her baby on her chest as part of The Claire Project (Courtesy: Nancie J Photography)

Alex, Karen and Claire are all breast cancer survivors. They, alongside nine other women, are featured in The Claire Project.

Commercial photographer Jimenez explained what spurred the concept behind her work.

“So I had an appointment with a woman for a maternity session. The night before the session she called me to say she was a breast cancer survivor,” Jimenez said.

Claire made that call.

At the time, she was pregnant with her second child. Claire was ready to show the world the reality she and her family were coping with.

“We did our session. It was intense but fun,” said Jimenez. “And she felt very elated to do the session. And when we were done I said, ‘I get the feeling that you want these pictures to be seen.’ And she said, ‘yes.’”

Jimenez said Claire volunteered to share the shoot on social media.

“And the purpose behind that was to remind women to have mammograms and to do self-breast exams,” said the commercial photographer.

Jimenez wanted to expand the work she did with Claire.

“On social media I put out a model call,” she said. “And women started reaching out to me. And so I started doing these sessions.”

Julie Hudson answered that call. Her journey of fighting cancer led to the removal of both breasts. The single mother and registered nurse chose reconstructive surgery after the cancer was cut from her body.

“It was actually my birthday. It was my 41st birthday. So it was a great birthday present. And so I woke up from surgery, very groggy and I’m lying there and I remember Dr. Ochoa standing over me and he was fixing the leads and he said, ‘You’re OK. you’re OK’. And I was like, ’Did…can…’ I was trying to get the words out. And he just said, ‘It’s OK. We got it all.’”

According to the American Cancer Society, 268,000 women are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer every year. That’s one out every eight women--often people we know. To battle the often deadly disease, every year 100,000 women will undergo some form of a mastectomy.

“For me, I had the ability to choose between several treatment options and I did not end up not having to do chemo and I chose not to do radiation. So my path, my journey was better than what some have been,” Hudson said.

Every year, breast cancer kills 42,260 people. Of that number, 500 are men.

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For all the people involved in the show, the goal is to impact all women to do their part to battle breast cancer before it’s too late.

“I think all the women are proud for what we have done and we don’t want it to end here. We want to take the show to other cities,” said Jimenez.

You can see The Claire Project inside the Blue Star Arts Complex during DreamWeek in San Antonio. The show runs through Friday.

Note: Some women’s names are not fully disclosed in this story for privacy reasons.