I hid from the world when cancer changed my body until dancing transformed my life...

AFTER being diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 37, Rachael Anderson withdrew from the world, overwhelmed by the changes to her body and mind. Looking in the mirror became difficult, and the idea of facing others felt impossible. She certainly never imagined herself as a dancer.

- LOIS MCCARTHY

Yet four years after her initial diagnosis, sandwiched between her dance instructor Louise Evans and fellow dancer Emma Llewellyn, Rachael has found the courage not only to dance, but to share her story.

The mum-of-two's path with Creazione Dance Company in Caerphilly didn’t begin with choreography or costumes. It started as a search for healing, physically and emotionally.

After completing her treatment and ringing the bell to mark the end of her breast cancer treatment on World Cancer Day 2022 - a year after her diagnosis - Rachael shared her experience on Facebook. That post would change everything.

Among the responses was a message from Louise, whom Rachael knew from previous fitness classes. Louise had a proposal.

“She invited me back to her classes,” Rachael recalls. “At first, I wasn’t sure I could do it.

“To be honest, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I hid from the world, I was a bit embarrassed. And I know I shouldn't be, but it’s one of those things. Your body changes, your mindset changes, everything does.”

Chemotherapy had taken Rachael's hair. Steroids had changed her body. “I didn’t recognise myself in the mirror,” she says. “I didn’t see the old Rachael anymore.”

Despite her hesitation, Louise persisted. She told Rachael about a charity event that Creazione Dance Company was organising in collaboration with Welsh Ice for breast cancer.

Louise was bringing together a group of “non-dancers” to perform Latin dance in support of the cause.

It was a leap into the unknown - especially as Rachael didn’t know anyone else in the group. But she showed up.

“I don’t know how I walked through those doors, I didn’t know anyone at the time, but I thought, ‘I need to do this,” she explains.

There she met Emma Llewellyn and seven other women - all of whom were there for their own personal reasons.