Suite Hope - Documentary

I'm on camera!

Last month, Jeanna Doyle (founder of Suite HOPE), came to my home and taught me how to look my best while undergoing chemotherapy treatments. You can read about it here. At the end of the session I was so impressed with her, the organization she has founded, and her mission, that I asked her to let me know if there was ever anything I could do to help her.

Jeanna is in the process of creating a documentary to bring awareness about appearance-related changes women go through during cancer treatments and to educate the public about oncology estheticians that train to assist women with these changes. Part of the documentary will contain interviews from cancer patients to understand their perspective and learn how Suite HOPE has helped.

When Jeanna asked if I would be interested in participating, I answered with a resounding "Yes!" As a little girl I dreamt of being on the big screen so a day of filming in a studio was a dream come true for me! To prepare, Jeanna had a creative director call and give me a pre-interview to help formulate good questions and answers. I thought through my answers a bit beforehand so I wouldn't (hopefully) be a total bumbling idiot once I arrived.

My mom and I drove down south of downtown to Stewart Cohen's studios. Check out his work here (pretty incredible, right?). I'm not going to lie, it was a little sketch-mcgee down there. I'm not sure if it made me feel better or worse that there was a police officer in the parking lot. I suppose it is where you picture a super artsy studio to be though.

Thank you Police Officer

One of the piles of awards

Stewart has won a bajillion awards. There were piles of them everywhere. If you went to his website site you can understand why. You would expect someone like that to have a certain air about them but Stewart was just about as down to earth as you can get. At one point he even made me tea! He made me feel completely comfortable. You could tell he could talk to just about anyone and make them feel like the most interesting person in the world. That probably is a good skill to have when you film people all day every day.

Getting your makeup done never gets old!

The team wanted some b-roll (whatever that is...) of Jeanna doing my makeup so I got my make up done again - yay! It is crazy how good she is:

With and without makeup

I think this shows you how sick I look without makeup (above) but how completely normal I look with hair and makeup on (below):

With and without the wig

During the interview I had an opportunity to talk about my story of being pregnant, getting cancer, and what life is like now going through treatments. I talked about what IBC is and how it is misdiagnosed 9 out of 10 times. I also was able to share how my faith has been the driving factor in being able to handle the diagnosis. We also discussed how fleeting beauty is and how your self-worth and confidence must be found in something more lasting than your outward appearance. As I've learned, beauty can be taken away in an instant.

The crew working

Overall, it was a fabulous experience. If I had more talent in this area, I would love to do it more often. It is so much fun! I'm so thankful Jeanna invited me to participate and I can't wait to see the finished product!

Jeanna - the makeup master!