How photography helped a breast cancer survivor find strength
When Shailza Singhal was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020, life changed overnight. The months that followed were filled with surgeries, hospital visits and endless treatment. Along with it came a quiet uncertainty that settled into everyday life. Some days, simply getting out of bed felt like an achievement. The physical exhaustion was difficult, but the emotional toll was often even harder to navigate.
In 2021, as she was slowly regaining her health after treatment and recovering from a severe bout of COVID-19, a close friend shared a small brochure featuring the birds found inside her residential society. Flipping through its pages, she wondered if all those birds really lived around her.
Curiosity pushed her outdoors. Every morning she stepped out with a simple point-and-shoot camera, hoping to spot a few of the birds she had just learnt about. What started as a distraction soon became something she looked forward to each day. For those few hours, she wasn’t thinking about medical reports or recovery. She was focused on watching a sunbird sip nectar, waiting for a kingfisher to land, or listening to birdsong she had never noticed before.
Without realizing it, nature began helping her heal. The more time she spent observing wildlife, the more she saw reflections of her own journey. A tiny sapling growing through concrete. A bird rebuilding its nest after a storm. Butterflies emerging after transformation. Everywhere she looked, nature spoke of resilience. “Nothing seemed to give up. Slowly, it taught me not to either,” she says.
Photography also became an outlet for emotions that were difficult to put into words. She found herself drawn not just to documenting wildlife, but to capturing moments that conveyed hope, vulnerability, connection and survival. Each photograph became more than an image. It became a story.
As her confidence behind the camera grew, so did unexpected opportunities. Her photographs began receiving recognition at national and international photography competitions. More than the awards, the recognition reassured her that the stories she was telling through nature were connecting with others.
Looking back, she says photography didn’t cure her cancer. But it changed the way she experienced recovery. It gave her a reason to step outside when she didn’t feel like leaving the house. It gave structure to her days and moments of joy to look forward to. Somewhere along the way, photography stopped being a hobby and became a way of life.
Today, every time she heads outdoors with her camera, she is reminded that extraordinary beauty often exists in the places we overlook. Through her photographs, she hopes others will pause, look a little closer and discover the remarkable wildlife living around them. “Because when we truly begin to notice nature, we also begin to value it. And when we value it, we are far more likely to protect it.”
