cervical cancer Archives

By Nathalie Latham

For cervical cancer survivor, artist, and filmmaker Nathalie Latham, Diwali — the Festival of Lights, celebrated this weekend in India and around the world — holds personal meaning.

After a Stage III cervical cancer diagnosis in 2009, creativity, prayer, and spiritual connection helped her navigate treatment and a long, difficult recovery — an experience that may resonate with many in our Cervivor community.

Now living in South India, Nathalie reflects on the lessons of survivorship, the difference between happiness and inner peace, and how Diwali reminds her to bring more wisdom, love, and light into her life.

Finding Creativity in the Darkness of Cancer Treatment

Diwali is my favourite festival, not only for its beauty but also for its deeper symbolism: the journey toward becoming a better person and living in greater connection with oneself and the world.

I was diagnosed with Stage III cervical cancer in 2009 and underwent seven days and nights of continuous brachytherapy. At the time, I was a photographer and filmmaker living in Paris.

My treatment took place at the Institut Curie, near the place where Marie Curie conducted her pioneering work with radiation. For many years afterward, I had a complicated relationship with my radiation experience. The radiation had devastated my body, but it had also destroyed my tumour and saved my life.

**Marie Curie in her Paris lab, near where Nathalie underwent brachytherapy.**

Before treatment, my doctors explained that I would be confined to bed for seven days, receiving radiation every hour. This felt like my worst nightmare.

I turned to images of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, who spent years recovering from a terrible accident and created an extraordinary body of work during that time. While confined to bed, lying on her back in excruciating pain, she painted.

Her example inspired me. I went to my favourite art store and bought a bag full of supplies to bring to radiation treatment.

The message for me was simple: Even when one is suffering, one can be creative.

Creativity and prayer saved me during this time. I prayed and chanted my mantra, Om Namo Narayani (I surrender to Mother Nature), every moment. Throughout treatment, I knew my loved ones were praying for me, too.

I asked everyone around me who had a spiritual life to pray for me. It did not matter what their spiritual path was or what they believed in: I wanted their love, thoughts, and prayers. Since childhood, I have understood that we are all connected through the universal soul. Their love and support helped me feel that I was not going through this alone.

Drawing My Way Through Cervical Cancer Recovery

As radiation treatment began, I started to draw.

I drew the horror I was experiencing, always connecting to my inner being and placing colours on paper. I layered colours on top of one another. I scratched in words:

HELP.

THIS IS TOO HARD.

I MUST GET THROUGH THIS.

I kept drawing throughout treatment. The drawings served as my lifeline. The white paper became a place where I could put down all these emotions.

**“Let me be.” (Artwork by Nathalie Latham)**

Radiation ended. I went into a deep depression, yet I continued drawing every day.

Each time I finished a drawing, I held it in my hands. This was my way of knowing that I was still alive.

That was a very important message for me.

I kept drawing for seven years throughout my recovery — through surgically induced menopause, anger, rage, kindness, love, despair, and the slow process of reconnecting with my body and the life force.

Finding a New Life and Purpose in India

After completing treatment, I went to South India to live near the temple of my spiritual teacher, Sri Sakthi Amma.

I thought I would stay for three months. Instead, I made a new life there. Today, I serve as Director of Programs for Green Sakthi, an environmental nonprofit.

*Nathalie with her spiritual teacher, Sri Sakthi Amma, and Aum, an orphaned goat she adopted during the pandemic.*

An important lesson I have learned while living in India is the difference between the pursuit of happiness and the experience of inner peace.

Happiness Versus Inner Peace

What is happiness?

We have many opportunities to experience happiness. It is something we are always looking for.

When we get what we want, we feel happy. But once we have that thing or experience, we may begin to worry about losing it. Or we start searching for something else to make us happy.

Constant expectations. The pursuit is never-ending — and exhausting!

What is peace?

When we have peace, we feel that we have everything and do not need to worry about anything.

When we look deeply into life and connect with our soul, we begin to experience the vastness of our being. For me, this is the experience of the divine within us, where we find peace.

I find this alignment through creativity. I draw to connect with that deep part of myself.

I also find it in nature, in prayer, with animals, and in the rituals of Diwali.

Diwali: Bringing Wisdom and Light Into Our Lives

In South India, Diwali, also called Deepavali, is celebrated as the Festival of Lights.

In homes and temples, rows upon rows of small lamps are lit. The festival’s name reflects these rows of light.

*Rows of glowing lamps illuminate a Diwali celebration in South India. (Photo by Nathalie Latham)*

Traditionally, Diwali celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, symbolised in the story of the defeat of the demon Narakasura.

For me, the demon also represents the darker qualities within ourselves: anger, greed, ignorance, negative thoughts, and the false belief that we are separate from one another.

Diwali is a time to bring light — wisdom — into our lives by recognising and working to overcome that inner darkness.

This is my favourite festival because it invites us to identify the negative energies within ourselves and seek divine support to transform them.

When we make an effort to move toward love, more love comes.

*Diwali celebrations at Sri Narayani Peedam, a Hindu spiritual center in Tamil Nadu, South India. (Photo by Nathalie Latham)*

When light comes, darkness disappears.

When wisdom enters, ignorance, greed, and anger leave.

For Diwali, we bring light into our lives so darkness disappears.

About the Author

Nathalie Latham is a multidisciplinary artist, photographer, filmmaker, and cervical cancer survivor whose work explores creativity, healing, culture, and the environment.

Diagnosed with Stage III cervical cancer in 2009, Nathalie turned to drawing during treatment and her seven-year recovery, developing a meditative artistic practice that helped her process the physical and emotional challenges of survivorship.

Her photography has been exhibited internationally, including at Australia’s National Portrait Gallery, and her documentaries have been produced for broadcasters including Arte, BBC, and Mezzo.

Now based in South India, Nathalie serves as Director of Programs for Green Sakthi, an environmental nonprofit focused on reforestation. Her new collection, I AM ALIVE, chronicles her journey through cancer, recovery, and creative transformation.

By Simone Monique Barnes

*Simone Monique Barnes, a breast cancer survivor and Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher*

It’s officially autumn. At this time of year, I find joy in trying old and new recipes — enjoying the smell and taste of pumpkin bread, hot apple cider, butternut squash soup, and other goodies from the fall harvest season.

Fall also brings the memory that it was the season when I met my medical oncologist after an annual mammogram showed that the tiny lump I found was actually triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive form of breast cancer with high rates of recurrence and mortality.

Fall was the beginning of several hard seasons of chemo, surgeries, and radiation treatments. Fall continues to be the season when I get an annual mammogram and a pelvic ultrasound and wonder whether or not they’ll call me back into “the room” because they’ve seen something unusual.

Fall is also the season that I remember how many of my loved ones have been taken by and impacted by this family of diseases: cancer. It’s easy to emotionally spiral about life’s miseries. So fall is also the time of year that reminds me about the importance of recipes to nourish my spirit.

Finding Joy After Breast Cancer

Every day, I remember the words of one of my favorite poems, “To Build a Swing,” by the 14th-century Persian poet, Hafiz. The poem’s first and last stanzas always stay with me:

“You carry

All the ingredients

To turn your life into a nightmare —

Don’t mix them!

…

You carry all the ingredients

To turn your existence into joy,

Mix them, mix

Them!”

I have all the ingredients to turn my life into a nightmare. But I don’t have to mix them.

But the realities of cancer treatments, side effects, grief, death, and loss … where can joy be found in that? The truth is joy and suffering are no strangers; they are well acquainted. We don’t have to pretend we aren’t sad about some things. We also don’t have to neglect our joy.

*Simone with Cervivor Founder and Chief Visionary Tamika Felder at the 2026 Gynecological Cancer Survivors Retreat & Advocacy Training Powered by Cervivor School in Scottsdale, AZ.*

In the kitchen, my favorite wooden spoon, the good spatula, and a perfectly sized cast iron pan tend to be tools that I regularly use to cook recipes I’ve come to love. I also keep a list of my favorite restaurants, those whose food and service keep me full.

But we don’t survive and thrive on food alone. I also have to nourish my spirit to have the energy to sustain me throughout the day.

Laughter Yoga: A Tool for Joy During Cancer Survivorship

One of my favorite tools to use to mix the ingredients that bring joy into my life is Laughter Yoga. It is a practice that began in India over thirty years ago with physician Dr. Madan Kataria.

Laughter Yoga is the union of unconditional laughter and pranayama, deep yogic breathing. It is a series of exercises that evoke laughter and silliness, along with different methods of breathing.

I often teach and talk about Laughter Yoga exercises in the cancer world. Laughter and cancer? Absolutely.

One of my favorites is “Crying Laughter.” During this exercise, we pretend to wipe our faces downward with sadness and crying, and then a moment later, we pretend to wipe our faces upward with happiness and laughter, then repeat those movements several times.

Crying, then laughing. Laughing, then crying.

It’s a good reminder that it’s okay to cry, and it’s okay to laugh. We’re strong enough to handle both, even during the same season.

As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would say, “It is often necessary to laugh in order to survive.”

Making Room for Happiness

One of the merits of this practice is that we never need to leave ourselves feeling down. We can always find joy that isn’t reliant on our circumstances to pick ourselves up.

While uncontrollably losing all of my hair during chemo was hard, I recall how fun it was to play with colorful lipsticks, large earrings, and gold rub-on tattoos on my head. (You can see one in the mirror I’m holding up in the first photo above.)

We often spend a lot of time managing our anger, our stress, our grief, our depression. I’ve learned that it’s important to manage my happiness, too. I look for happiness daily. It’s what makes my joy sustainable.

Being in a room full of cancer survivors at conferences or support groups sharing the painful truths about their experiences brings tears and heartbreak. It also brings hugs that are genuine, laughter that is real, dance moves that are outstanding, and a sense of connection between us all. (Plus the sponsored swag bags are usually next level. Ooh, la, la.)

**Simone leads a Laughter Yoga session at Cervivor’s 2026 advocacy retreat.**

The ingredients for pain and sorrow are easy to find. We know where they are. Any cancer survivor or their co-survivor can rattle off their list of pain, suffering, and loss, be it physical, mental, emotional, or social. But joy sometimes requires a little work. It needs to be cultivated.

In Laughter Yoga, we often quote philosopher and psychologist William James (1842–1910), who wisely taught, “We don’t laugh because we’re happy; we’re happy because we laugh.”

Laughter Yoga-Inspired Recipes for Joy

So, here are some Laughter Yoga-inspired recipes for joy:

Take a deep breath in, hold it for five counts, then laugh your exhale out.
Set a timer and laugh for a whole minute nonstop.
Laugh quietly, trying not to make any noise.
Laugh at every red light or stop sign on your way to and from anywhere.
Pretend to laugh with someone on your cell phone. (Hint: No one knows there isn’t anyone on the other end of the fake phone call.)
Laugh until you cry. Cry until you laugh. (Fake laughter and fake crying count.)
Dance to music that inspires you to move your body. Dance to silly songs. Dance to songs that groove. Dance to songs that stir you to feel deep within.
Let your clothing be an outlet for vibrant expression. Sway that scarf in the air. Wear the fun and beautiful things.
Laugh until you begin to remember what joy feels like in your body. If it doesn’t remember, try again later. And keep trying.
Then, remember what else made you feel that joyous way, and go do it. (Even if it’s a modified version of it.)

You have all the ingredients for joy. Mix them. Mix them!

Simone Monique Barnes is a Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher and a Triple Negative Breast Cancer Survivor, observing more than eight years of what she calls “no shark sightings at the beach” (which her doctors call “No Evidence of Disease,” or NED). Simone regularly speaks, teaches, and preaches about the importance of having joy practices, especially in hard times. She uses Laughter Yoga as fuel to have the energy to do good work and to stay in good trouble. You can find her at SimoneMoniqueBarnes.com or on Instagram @simonemoniquebarnes

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Celebrating Diwali: Finding Light Through Cervical Cancer Survivorship