There was a time when Emma Jarrett took her body for granted.
But that all changed when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016, at the age of 51.
“I now literally probably say out loud at some point during each day how grateful I am to my body and how well functioning it is, even though I’m in my early 60s,” she told CBC’s Daybreak North. “It took a long time for me to understand and embrace what had happened to me.”
Nearly 30,000 Canadians will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, according to Breast Cancer Canada, and about one in eight women will be diagnosed at some point during their lives.
And yet, Jarrett said, people don’t talk about it very openly.
That’s why she’s created a show all about her diagnosis, detailing vulnerable moments as a woman navigating the health-care system and our society.
“It’s a personal story, very personal, but I speak for the millions of us who received a life-threatening diagnosis, not even just breast cancer, and had to navigate treatment and make choices,” Jarrett, 61, said.
When Jarrett had a double mastectomy in 2017, she began writing. At first, she says, it was poetry. But when she was working as the artist-in-residence at the Sunset Theatre in Wells, B.C., she channelled her pain into a monologue. That monologue became her show, Breastless.
She hopes the show gets people talking more about these kinds of diagnoses, but also encourages people to honour the female body, and in particular, breasts.
“I like to encourage a changed understanding of breasts,” Jarrett said. “It’s also something we don’t tend to talk about very often. They are an important organ in the body.”
(Submitted by Emma Jarrett)
The show delves into mastectomy and breast reconstruction, and the choices that Jarrett said are often made for women by the medical system or our culture.
“I think there is a lot to hear in this about how we as a culture approach breast cancer and the mainstream narrative of that.”
Though the show may particularly resonate with women, she said it’s meant for all.
She says a man told her last summer that “every man who knows a woman should see this play.”
“I’m not sure I could say it any better than that,” she added.
LISTEN | Emma Jarrett on her stage show:
The show has reached audiences she may not have expected. Last year, she spoke with Harvard medical students, and performed part of her show, to help change their perspective on patients.
Jarrett’s also started teaching a course titled Art As Resilience, in conjunction with artist Sarah Guest, which helps people connect with their bodies and nervous systems through writing and drawing.
Each time she performs Breastless live, Jarrett said the community comes together to heal.
“We are vulnerable as humans, but we’re also immensely powerful and artistic that we may not know it,” she said. “I think the story is something that humans have gathered around for years, for millennia, and it’s so important to that sort of commonality and sense of community that we all so yearn for.”
Breastless will be performed live at the Knox Centre in Prince George on April 25 at 7:30 p.m.
(Submitted by Emma Jarrett)