"Life outweighs risk": Maps of memory and resilience in women with cancer risk

"Life outweighs risk": Maps of memory and resilience in women with cancer risk shares the visual and verbal stories of what memory is like in young and middle-aged women who have chosen a risk-reducing surgery, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (BSO), to prevent cancer. As is well-documented, cancer and cancer risk can lead to difficult decisions. Women with BSO have made the very difficult and personal decision to remove, in many cases, healthy tissue (ovaries and sometimes breasts) to reduce their risk of breast and ovarian cancer dramatically. At the same time, BSO can lead to memory difficulties that affect their personal and professional lives and sometimes, even their sense of self. In this trade-off, where the weight of cancer lightens and memory loss intrudes, their remarkable strength and resilience inspires.

These first-hand experiences of memory loss materialize on body maps—life-sized body outlines of women with premenopausal BSO. Beyond the cognitive scorecard and medical reports, these maps bring memory into the everyday and personal—where it confronts, reminds, and challenges.

This exhibition honours the memory of art historian, curator, and The Princess Margaret Hospital cancer patient Jacqueline Ford, as it does the women who have had risk-reducing BSO, making visible their struggles and resilience.

This exhibit is generously funded by the Wilfred and Joyce Posluns Chair in Women's Brain Health and Aging and the Jacqueline Ford Fund for Gender and Health. Entry is free.