Emma’s Story

Emma Johns refers to it as “dopamine dressing” – using colourful clothing to boost your mood. An experienced stylist, it became her armour during cancer treatment.

“It really worked for me as a cancer tool in both active treatment and now recovery. I could take power back through what I was wearing – I didn’t have to fall back onto wearing black and things that would make me feel like I was feeling on the inside,” the now 49 [50 in May] year old says.

Another weapon in her fight against the mental onslaught of cancer treatment was learning how to disguise how she looked, and find her tribe in other women going through cancer.

“Look Good Feel Better was one of the most incredible discoveries, it came at a time where losing my hair was possibly even harder than getting a cancer diagnosis. I had long, long, blonde hair and it was my crowning glory, a personality trait.

“I did online classes. And it was my little window to the world. I cried the first time I joined the class because suddenly there were women that looked like me. We swapped stories, it felt home.

“Look Good Feel Better taught me how to highlight my eyelashes, how to put colour on my face, how to look after my nails.”

The sessions are free to anyone with any cancer, and include online classes and on-demand videos that receive funding support from people who fundraise during Dry July.

Emma will never forget discovering her routine mammogram showed abnormalities and an ultrasound revealed bad news.

“He [the doctor] said, ‘I’m so sorry, you have breast cancer’. And I remember looking at Howie, my husband, and everything changed. What you thought was your world just automatically stops and a whole other world begins. And I still haven’t got off that train nearly two and a half years later.

“Our children were 13 and 15. I just had to keep myself together for my boys and my husband. I cried in private, and I worried in private. And I allowed myself to wallow, really wallow, and it was hard on my husband because he became mum, dad, chief, cook, everything.

“I was sad, and I was lonely. And I was really scared. And I didn’t probably allow myself to see the light enough. I really hated chemo. It was very rough.

“Looking good can help you feel better. When you are feeling so rough, and you have this dreadful disease going on, and your energy is so depleted – this is one thing that you can take control of,” the stylist behind Sisterhood of Style says.

“Just being able to crawl out of bed and have your pyjamas on and turn the video on Zoom. You’re having a bad chemo day and you’re feeling like crap, but you know that you’re going to feel a little bit better, you’re going to feel confident by the end of this class. It’s a remarkable way to spend an hour of your day, especially when you’re spending 99 percent of your time alone.

“It was an amazing source of confidence. And for me it absolutely changed my cancer experience.”

So much so that Emma now runs styling with confidence sessions for Look Good Feel Better, as well as how-to videos on scarf tying and another on what to pack in your chemo bag.

“I want to help as many people as possible through my superpower, which is styling,” she says. “You can use style as a sense of armour. I use it as a powerful tool against the day and also I use it as powerful tool against cancer.

“So if I get to combine that with a charity like Look Good Feel Better, it’s too much of a good synergy for me.”