Scars of battle

Tahira Kashyap Khurrana and Sonali Bendre are indeed an inspiration to many. On world cancer yesterday, these celebrities took to social media to share their survival stories.

Tahira shared a bold image of her bare back, revealing her surgical scar with a long caption to commemorate World Cancer Day. She wrote, “Today is my day! Wish you all a happy #worldcancerday and hope each one of us celebrates this day in an embracing way. That we remove any stigma or taboo associated with it. That we spread awareness about it and that we have self love no matter what. I truly embrace all my scars as they are my badges of honour. There is nothing known as perfect. Happiness lies in truly accepting yourself.”

“This was a tough one for me. But this picture was my decision as I want to celebrate not the disease but the spirit with which I endured,” she added. Tahira went on to quote her mentor Diasaku Ikeda and wrote, “Leading an undefeated life is eternal victory. Not being defeated, never giving up, is actually a greater victory than winning, not being defeated means having the courage to rise to the challenge. However many times we’re knocked down, the important thing is we keep getting up and taking one step-even a half step- forward.”

On account of the same, Sonali posted an awareness message for her Instagram fans, “World Cancer Day… who would have thought it would become such a thing… but it has! And just the mere mention of the C word brings dread in the hearts of anyone who hears it. We fear it so much that we’d rather not talk about it… that is why it’s important to have a day where we pull out the band-aid and help us deal with this disease. I was scared too, but soon realised that burying my head in the sand was not the way to deal with this.”