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Christine Handy's--Breast Implant Illness and Cancer story
4 Plays8 months ago
Christine Handy’s movie "Hello Beautiful"is going to transform how we view breast implants and breast cancer. 💪💖But we need YOUR help to spread the word! The more we talk about it, the faster this empowering story will hit theaters.
🌟 Let’s amplify the message and make sure everyone knows—this film will inspire hope and healing. 💙 Share now!
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Transcript
Introduction of Christine Handy
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Hope for Healing Network. This is Susley Henderson. Thank you so much for joining us today. I have one of my favorite interviewees on. She is a very accomplished woman, has gone through so many trials, and I want her to introduce a little bit about herself, the amazing things that she's doing, and her advocacy work. So welcome, Christine. Please introduce yourself.
00:00:27
Speaker
Thank you.
Identity as a Breast Cancer Disruptor
00:00:28
Speaker
um So my name is Christine Handy. i'm formerly often referred to as a breast cancer disruptor because I'm trying to disrupt a lot of spaces. Um, I just recently won an award for model of the year, um, because of the work I've done in the modeling space. I started working as a model as a child. And after I was diagnosed with breast cancer and lost my implants to breast implant illness, I went back to the modeling space to walk in New York fashion week, walk in Miami swim week. I partnered with.
00:01:00
Speaker
brands such as Cupshe, which is a bathing suit brand, as well as Victoria's Secret, big brands who are willing to share my mission, which is to show that my self-esteem was never negated because I lost my chest. My self-esteem is whole because I am whole, regardless if I have implants in or breasts, my own breasts.
Journey of Self-Worth and Writing
00:01:21
Speaker
um I also wrote a book in 2016 about my breast cancer journey, which is called Walk Beside Me. It is currently um in post-production as a film called Hello, Beautiful. And I think you probably have my book. It's not showing up.
00:01:38
Speaker
Yeah, kind of showing up. I should do that too. um Anyway, my book was published so long ago, I never promote it, which I should as well. But my my book, the reason I wrote my book was because I wanted to share that you can go, you can be completely dependent on society and ah try to fit into what society, at least from my perspective, wants you to fit into.
00:02:03
Speaker
And you can lose everything that you believe is your worth, which is what I thought my worth was based on, and everything external, whether it was materialism, whether it was my external beauty, I was really dependent on that.
Realization of Self-Worth Beyond Society
00:02:17
Speaker
And I lost it all. And when I lost it all, I realized that my worth had nothing to do with any of those things. It was 40 years of of caring about society and caring about um external everything. What bag I carried, what how my hair looked, and my figure. Of course, I was perpetually on a diet because of my modeling career. But all of that, when it's washed away, you realize what you're what who you are inside. And of course, I realized that my
00:02:49
Speaker
might to be stable in this culture that we live in, my dependency could not be on anything external. I'm not dependent on any ah my any external beauty. I'm not dependent on people. I'm not dependent on popularity. I'm not dependent on success. I'm dependent on faith. And as long as I'm dependent on faith and not fair not fear and not worry than I'm, again, of course, I'm whole. So I also am on the board of three nonprofits. my Like I said, my book is being made into a film, which is coming out later this year.
Roles and Relatability as a Public Figure
00:03:28
Speaker
And I'm a motivational speaker. I'm a mother of two sons. I am a social media influencer. I am missing something, but I don't know what it is.
00:03:37
Speaker
You just, you're doing everything. It's just amazing. Everything that you're doing. And I see you even post your pictures of your sons and I love it. I love that you have that up there and it's just so relatable. And I appreciate that because so many people in the limelight, they're just not very relatable, but you are. And I really love that about you. So thank you. Thank you.
Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Implant Illness
00:04:03
Speaker
So I want to talk a little bit about your story, um just a very short about what you went through. You had breast cancer, then you had breast implant illness. You went through some horrendous things. So just share a little bit about that with us.
00:04:19
Speaker
Yeah, so i I would say that part of the reason why people are kind of attracted to my story is because I'm very vulnerable about the difficulty that I went through. You know, so often we find on social media in particular these highlight reels and we're all putting, you know, the the best version of us. And not that I don't sometimes do that, but I try to make sure I'm telling the full story. And so I did go through breast cancer at the age of 42 completely out of nowhere. I had just had an other issue with my arm. My arm had just been fused with bone grafts and cadaver, Achilles tendon put in my arm and
00:05:01
Speaker
I had no family history of breast cancer. I never thought in my life that I would be diagnosed with that disease, especially at 42. You think about, well, not anymore, but when I was a child, i used to my parents you know used to entertain a lot and they would say at parties, oh, so-and-so has cancer.
00:05:22
Speaker
And it was like the shameful thing. And I'm sure that's generational and it's different obviously now, but when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I thought i i felt a lot of shame. And after my 15 months of chemotherapy, I really was, I shriveled into something that was unrecognizable physically, but I had kind of morphed into my truest power.
00:05:49
Speaker
um And that was when, of course, I was no longer dependent on anything that I was dependent on before. After that, um I never woke up without a chest. I had mastectomies and I had implants. I had expanders and then implants. And of course that was a huge process.
Crusade Against Misleading Medical Narratives
00:06:06
Speaker
um When I went to a plastic surgeon about discussing the mastectomies, there was a bunch of implants there which were really pretty and I just got to pick a size. And I didn't really pick actually that the texture ones I ended up picking up, picking later because when you have a vacant chest, when you have a mastectomy from,
00:06:27
Speaker
for me, breast cancer, the typical implants move around. And so after a few years of those implants, my doctor suggested I take those out and put the textured one in so they could they weren't so uncomfortable. Because when you have that vacant space and they're moving around, it's painful. So I was like, oh, I'm all in. I want these textured ones right now because I don't want to feel this pain.
00:06:52
Speaker
Well, I had the textured ones in the allergen biocell textured implants, which were recalled in 2019. Ultimately, I got those out because of the recall and had new ones put in, which ultimately caused a major problem in my life, almost died of breast implant illness. And unbeknownst to me, because for years, I had i had the implants for seven years, for years.
00:07:21
Speaker
my oncologist, my plastic surgeon, my oncological surgeon, they all said the symptoms that I was having were related to what they now call long-term COVID was long-term chemo effects.
00:07:35
Speaker
And so I was like, okay, well, i how would I know? I didn't go to medical school. I have no information. I never saw a black box associated with the implants. And it wasn't talked about, to be honest with you. There's kind of a big push right now with yourself, but a lot of people on socials talking about breast implant illness, which by the way, if we didn't have storytelling, if we didn't have people shouting out from the rooftops, because Allergen wants to us to shut the,
00:08:05
Speaker
Ah, they can't stand me and I can't stand them. What they have done to me personally and to the people that I love and the people that I see daily, it makes me sick. It makes my blood boil. And so, in fact, in the movie about my life, which by the way,
00:08:34
Speaker
I'm so excited about it.
Changing the Narrative with Film
00:08:36
Speaker
And it's not because it's my story. It's because for so much time during my duration with breast cancer, all the information that I was getting from doctors was abundant and overwhelming. But I needed to see stories. We all need to see stories about what we're enduring, what we're going through, or what we're about to go through.
00:09:02
Speaker
And the stories that I was watching on in film and in TV, I had righteous anger about because most of them, most of the ones that I watched, I'm not saying that the other ones don't exist, the ones that I saw ended in despair, ended in a funeral. And I thought, wow, I should really be afraid.
00:09:23
Speaker
Because if this is what Hollywood is portraying, or whomever independent films, all of them, if this is what's going to happen to me, man, I should have no hope in my life. And so when I survived breast cancer, I thought, well, if I can write the book, and if I can get made that made into a film, then maybe I can change the narrative.
00:09:43
Speaker
of film and breast cancer, which is what my mission is. So I'm excited about that. I'm excited to give people hope on a more global level. And in and it's funny because we've been interviewed a lot about the film from various film it you know outlets and and they ah have the opportunity to watch the film.
Film Release Strategy and Social Media Influence
00:10:04
Speaker
The film's not out. So the only people that can watch the film right now are film festivals or if we've been if we get interviewed, then they're allowed to see it ahead of time. But I can't even post like the trailer.
00:10:16
Speaker
So these these interviews have been interesting because they all have focused a lot on the final scene. And I'm not going to tell you what it is, but the importance of the final scene is going to impact breast implant illness. It's going to impact the visibility of what breast implants can do to women and have done to women. So I'm on a crusade and obviously, um you know, i when I started it was a book and then it was speaking in front of an audience and then it was social media and now it's a film. And so the bigger my voice gets the, the you know, the, in my opinion, the better because um I'm trying to give people hope. I'm a hope facilitator.
00:11:00
Speaker
hi As you're talking, I just want to shout amen. I thank you. We need, women need this advocacy because there's so many that I work with that can't fight for themselves. Their doctors are shutting them down. They're sick in bed. Even after ex planning, they're sick in bed because they have all these toxins or um silicone migration or mold or autoimmune response that's still going on. Even after taking out their implants,
00:11:28
Speaker
and no doctors believing them, their families not believing them, they're alone. So what you are doing is, will affect thou, I'm hoping hundreds of thousands, millions, millions of women and giving them their, their life back, their hope back so they can get care. So thank you so much for what you're doing.
00:11:49
Speaker
i mean it It just, it means a lot to me and to a lot of other women. Cause you know, my voice is like this, you know, my, my small voice, even though I'm doing what I'm doing, it's, it needs to be greater. And that's what you're doing.
00:12:04
Speaker
Well, but you know what? I think part of my mission is to to to show people that you have a voice. I didn't think I had a voice. And when I was diagnosed with cancer, my voice got bigger, right? I mean, I was a model for 30 years and thought I had no voice. I get breast cancer. I lose my beauty. And I'm like, you know, have now feel like I have a voice. It's It's ironic, you know but it all comes from within. Our self-esteem is not dependent on anybody else's expectations of us. Our self-esteem is our job. It's my job to nurture my self-esteem, not anybody else's.
00:12:40
Speaker
Yeah, I know that as women, we need to hear that. And we're so hot our hard on ourselves and we're trying to follow society and those expectations and those who are married or dating, you know, need to feel like they have to have breasts and it's really difficult. So you speaking up and and you're right. I'm trying to have a voice. I need to give myself a little little bit of credit. but I'm trying really hard to get the word out. You are doing a great job.
00:13:10
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you, Christine. Well, I but so I know that people want to know a little bit more. When is your movie coming out? Where can they get access? out oh Is it going to be out in theaters? What what is it because I want to know as well.
00:13:26
Speaker
Yeah, so it it is, it's it just finished post-production, so it will be in theaters. it's it'll be um we've We're talking to some people that wanna participate in getting it really globally out there and in theaters all over the world because breast cancer and breast implant illness isn't um just in the United States, it's everywhere.
00:13:46
Speaker
So we were on a big mission to get it out there. It's not for the faint of heart. You know, just the fact that the movie is made is is kind of shocking to me. We've been working on this for over six years and the roller coaster ride is real. But when it's not self-indulgent and when you're on a a really pure mission, nothing can really stop you.
00:14:13
Speaker
exactly yeah So I don't know the the to be determined the date that it's actually coming out. I believe it's gonna first be shown in a festival film festival and then it will go into theaters. That's the goal. But it might be sold prior to a festival when ah you know we' we're talking to different distributors. And if that's the case, then it'll go straight to theaters. But the end of this year or beginning of 2025.
00:14:41
Speaker
We would love for you to keep us updated. Please when please post in this group when it comes out, because I know there's a lot of people that would like to support you and all all the women in the breast and plant illness world or mesh world, any kind of medical devices right that cause these type of reactions. I want these women to just go and see this and support it because this is a global movement. We have to we have to do this to get a change.
00:15:10
Speaker
Well, and social media has an impact on film. It 100% matters that people promote this.
Storytelling and Self-Talk for Hope
00:15:17
Speaker
I've been talking to a couple of, you know, bigger celebrities, like, I'm not gonna, I guess I can't, I guess I shouldn't name them, who've had breast cancer and they are like, oh, we can't wait.
00:15:30
Speaker
And it takes a lot of voices to get this movie out. It takes a lot of voices right now to talk about it because it's you know it's it's an independent film and it's not backed by Hollywood. and And so it takes a village. And there's some movies that have come out in the past couple of years that have been had a real success and and real visibility because of social media. So I'm 100% certain that I'm gonna be trying to promote it via social media. so it's in ah it's Again, it's not it's not about me, but it's an important movie to show hope. I think all of us, by storytelling, we're showing hope. And also by the truth. In the movie, we don't paint a picture of perfection. We don't paint a picture that doesn't exist. We show real the real trials.
00:16:18
Speaker
of chemotherapy, not just in the main character, but also in the family relationships and the friendships, because it does affect the whole community of people. And so by I believe that by sharing such honesty, that will also help people because people don't want to feel alone. And so if you share a story like that, and it opens up people to feeling like they're not alone, that's really important.
00:16:44
Speaker
Our world needs connection right now and ah and genuine, being you know authentic. And that's that's where I think we're kind of headed towards that women, we want to feel that and that connection, like you said.
00:16:59
Speaker
So what can we do to help support you in getting this out on social media? what can What can I do? What can anybody do? Well, I mean, just talking about it, I guess, is is important right now. it's It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and it's um it's top of mind for a lot of people. But breast cancer, breast implant illness, it happens every day, not just in October. It's it's a problem every 365 days a year. And so I just think the more we talk about storytelling and and that this is going to happen, this is coming out, you know that that will help it, i'm I'm sure. It's called Hello Beautiful. it's not called It's not the same title as the book. Yeah, I'm very anxious to see it. we are And I told you a little bit about this. We are doing a march, a Women's March in Austin, Texas on the Capitol in March of 2025, which is Breast and Plant Illness Awareness Month.
00:17:57
Speaker
And we're trying to get advocate for getting the ICD 11 code, which is a diagnostic code to reflect that breast implant illness is it is an illness. And then that way practitioners can diagnose women, they can get the care or the help they need and paid for by insurance. So we're, we're really pushing for this and.
00:18:20
Speaker
So I appreciate your advocacy. you Thank you so much, Christine, for being here. Is there anything else any anything else that you'd like to share with us? But like you said earlier, I think we so often give other people the grace that we deserve ourselves. So we we have to give ourselves grace, right? In all of the ups and downs, like what you were talking about, how you know you you have you said you have a small voice. I i don't think that. It's also self-talk, like what we how we talk to ourselves.
00:18:53
Speaker
But you, you become what you believe, right? So if you think you have a small voice, that's what you'll become. If you think you are, you know, going to be a crusader and have a huge voice, you'll become that too. So grace, give yourself grace and and self-talk. Remember self-talk is critical. I need that reminder.
00:19:12
Speaker
Thank you. Yes, that's true. What a beautiful message. And this is hope. um I mean, you've brought me hope today. I hope all of you that are listening. Thank you for joining us. And I just want you to remember, you know, please have hope. It's there. We're there to support you and love you and wishing everyone a wonderful day. Thank you, Christine. Thank you.