ARCOLA - Kennedy Tessier has been paying tribute to those who are fighting cancer through her Cancer Warriors project.
Tessier, who owns This Moment Photography in Arcola, said she wants to empower people who need it the most while bringing awareness to the fight against cancer. Each of the participants has their photo taken and shares their story through a video.
When she started, her focus was on breast cancer. In each of the first two years, she had eight participants. This year she wanted to also have ovarian cancer fighters, and had a couple of women lined up, but they had to back out to focus on treatment and Tessier didn't want to push them to hard.
Next year she hopes to expand the Cancer Warriors photos to men and women who have had cancer.
She's found it's been hard to get people in the southeast to reflect. It was also difficult listening to these people talk about having their support system, she said, because she found she wasn't there to support her father when he had cancer, as she was pregnant at the time.
"He really didn't want to scare me," she said. "It was more of my mom being a support system [for him]."
Tessier's father died in 2019 due to a rare form of cancer, and an aunt passed away the following year. She started the project in 2021 in an effort to encourage others to be pro-active on checking and making sure they can catch anything of concern before it becomes worse.
Tessier said she is working on getting a foundation up and running in her father's name.
The people who have participated in the Cancer Warriors project have given outstanding reviews. They couldn't believe it was put together so quickly.
"It made them feel amazing being able to tell their story, and having it put everywhere has been an … eyeopener to people, too," said Tessier.
Sometimes the questions are tough, but the people who participate want others to know what they have been through.
"I feel like a lot of people don't understand the treatments. At first I didn't understand with my dad's treatments, because I wasn't there all of the time."
She has also worked with many local businesses who provide gifts to the women who participate in Cancer Warriors. These people have provided items that help them look and feel better about themselves, and have helped put smiles on faces.
"I'm glad I had a lot of people that could help to give items that will help you feel good," said Tessier.
She plans to organize Cancer Warriors again next year to give people to share their stories and bring awareness to their fight. And after a friend went through pregnancy loss, she wants to create an opportunity for people to share their experiences on that front and create awareness. Eventually she would like to branch out into mental health awareness.
