High School Cancer Survivor Speaks Out After Her Chemotherapy Port Scar Was Edited Out Of Yearbook Photo
Allison Hale is a 16-year-old high school student who recently spoke with People.com to share her story about how incredibly upset she was when she found out her yearbook photos had been edited, without her permission, to remove her chemotherapy port scar from her chest.
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“When I pulled out the photo, my whole face dropped,” she shares with PEOPLE. “I felt like my heart just sunk straight to my stomach because [my port] is so important to me, and it was just erased completely.”
After expressing the matter with the photographers, Hale stated they were quick to fix the photo and apologize. She is now wanting to share her story so that others will also embrace their scars, whether they’re associated with a cancer battle or not.
“Everyone looks different. Everyone has something, and everyone is going to have an opinion of themselves and other people,” Hale explains. “You need to stop thinking, ‘How do people see me?’ and start thinking more of, how do you see you? Once that perspective changes, everything changes.”
Hale, who lives near Evansville revealed that she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2020, shortly before Christmas. She is a high school student who is in love with art and music and was completely devastated when she first heard the news.
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“There was a lot happening in my life, outside of my health. I was already in a bad place mentally,” she recalls. “Then, to be diagnosed with cancer right before Christmas at 15, it just diminishes every feeling of confidence and worth that you feel.”
“Because now, you’re sick and sad and feeling all the emotions,” she continues. “There was anger, there was fright. I was terrified of what was to come, and lonely, very isolated.”
The teen later joined a treatment facility with others that we’re facing the same battle at the Indianapolis’ Riley Children’s Hospital. She described the treatment center as a “warm” feeling.
“I met the nurses… and they just made everything seem not as scary,” she says. “Of course, it was still scary, but having that support and other kids who are going through the same things around you, it makes all the difference.”
Allison Hale, ended her conversation with a message that could really help others by saying, “Self-acceptance and self-love look different for everyone,” she says. “It’s its own journey, truly. When I start to feel down on myself, that’s a moment where I remind myself it’s okay to feel this way. Everyone feels this way at some point or another.”
“Feel those feelings,” she adds. “And once you see it through, your world’s going to change and it’s going to change for the better.”