Advisory: This story contains images that might be confronting for some readers.
Cancer nearly killed Kelly Valk, but she fought it and the cosmetic tattooist is now setting up a charity to help breast cancer survivors who can't afford it get 'mana enhancing' nipple-areola tattoos after a mastectomy. Until her charity is registered, she's offering the service for a koha.
When she's standing naked in front of the mirror, the scar that runs from her pelvis to her stomach brings the "trauma" all back to the surface.
"Every single time, it takes me back there," Kelly Valk (nee Pratt) says.
A cancer diagnosis hits like a sucker punch - there is no graceful acceptance. But for the lucky ones who survive it, you're in a club with unmatched camaraderie.
Valk, 37, is a Mount Maunganui cosmetic tattooist who was diagnosed with stage 3C ovarian cancer in 2021.
It was while she was undergoing treatment, she realised she wanted to do something more purposeful with her life.
Inspired by YouTube clips of stretch marks and scar camouflaging, she expanded her existing skill base by training to do lifelike 3D nipple-areola tattooing for breast cancer survivors post-mastectomy, to help ease the emotional recovery.
The treatment, usually costing $500 for one breast or $800 for both, is being offered by Valk in exchange for a "koha" to her soon-to-be-established charitable trust Foundation Effects. She has finished its constitution and is in the process of confirming board members.
It's her hope that future business sponsors will fully fund the treatment, and she'll eventually be able to travel throughout the central North Island with her skills "casting the net wider".
"I've been there with the whole equity issue and I think that's been my driver," the single mother of two says.
"Why would I not want to try to bridge the gap and offer it to the people that can't afford it."
Valk (Whānau ā Apanui, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Whātua, Ngāpuhi, me Raukawa), has a kaupapa Māori focus to her work, implementing Te Whare Tapa Whā - the Māori health model based on holistic health.
Her practice is "restorative artistry applied for mana-enhancing effects".
Artistic principles of light, shadow, colour matching and measuring are used in the method which gives back the anatomical markings.
This month is breast cancer awareness month, and in the Western Bay of Plenty, about 250 women a year are diagnosed with breast cancer, 85 in the Te Whatu Ora Lakes region, and 3500 throughout New Zealand.
One in nine Kiwi women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime, says Breast Cancer Support Service Tauranga Trust service manager Helen Alice, and a number of clients get nipple tattooing - either while having reconstructive surgery or afterwards.
"For some women, it's very important, and part of returning their bodies to as close as possible to what they had before."
A mastectomy can be "deeply upsetting" and reconstruction surgery helps to improve a woman's body image and self-esteem, adds Natalie James, nurse lead and cancer support programme manager at Breast Cancer Foundation NZ.
What's more, nipple tattooing, "which is a real craft", is often considered the "crowning glory" of the process.
"The final step to complete reconstruction, giving women a sense of closure. But it's also a very personal decision, and one of many [that] a woman has to make after a breast cancer diagnosis."
James encourages people to seek reliable information about their treatment and post-treatment options - something their team of specialist breast nurses can help with.
'It was big and it was aggressive'
For Bay of Plenty mum Rebecca Beale, being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018 at age 51, after she found a lump, was "full-on".
"It was big, and it was aggressive, and it was growing very quickly," she says of her stage 3, grade 3, triple-negative breast cancer diagnosis.
She hadn't given nipple tattooing much thought but was introduced to Valk through a friend, and Beale wanted to help her out as her first nipple tattooing client.
Beale had six months of chemotherapy, before the mastectomy of her right breast with three tumours, then three weeks of daily radiation.
"I didn't really want to have an implant, but then I didn't want to have nothing either," she says, explaining that she didn't have enough body fat for a fat transfer, so she has one implant, and one natural breast.
Her surgeon wasn't going to touch the other breast unless she tested positive for BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which she didn't.
"I have a scar across the middle and I was not really bothered, but I wanted to help Kelly and her cause. She's a gorgeous person.
"I was the first one she did, so it was quite a momentous occasion. She's done an incredible job and once I've gone back for my touch-up [later this month] it'll look even better.
"I wouldn't have done it had I not had this chance.
"It was very emotional for Kelly," she says, with Valk agreeing it helped with her own healing.
Beale: "She's had a bit of a different journey from me, but I was pleased that I could help her."
'Something is not right'
After nearly nine months of symptoms, failed antibiotics and no answers, Kelly Valk was frightened.
Fighting the emotion she'd felt for months she told the GP sitting in front of her: "Something is not right. I need a scan."
It was her first time seeing this GP, after two previous doctors.
He looked at her history, eyeballed her, and said: "Yeah, you do."
For nearly a year she had been backwards and forwards to the practice.
She was experiencing pain during intercourse, bloating, a sore lower back, weight gain and then weight loss. For the past three years, her periods lengthened - she would bleed for a few days, stop bleeding, and start again.
She'd repeatedly been prescribed antibiotics despite tests showing she had neither a urinary tract infection nor any other infections.
And then, just before she saw her new doctor, she started bleeding "all over the show", and that's when she asked for a scan.
The process of getting diagnosed was arduous and expensive.
She was told she'd be put on a waiting list for an ultrasound, or if she paid $300, she could have it tomorrow.
"So there's a massive gap in inequality," she says.
She paid for the ultrasound, and by that afternoon she'd had a call to say they'd found something and she needed a CAT scan. Again, she could wait, or pay $1300 to have it straight away. Her father paid.
While there, a nurse told her she unlikely had anything to worry about. After all, who got ovarian cancer at 36?
It turns out she did.
She got a call that afternoon: she had two large cysts 6cm by 5cm on each ovary.
She was referred to a specialist in Auckland and booked for an MRI.
She had a biopsy, which showed cancer had metastasised, spreading outside her ovaries and tethering on to her bowel. Twelve nodes travelling as high as her pancreas and stomach were removed.
"So it had been growing for a long time. I did feel quite resentful. You have faith in doctors and that was a hard pill to swallow," she says.
A blessing in all the chaos
She was referred to oncology and had three rounds of chemotherapy; a full hysterectomy; and another three rounds of chemo.
Having the option to have more children taken away from her was "hard" but she blessedly would survive, saying "so much good has come too".
"Personal growth, change, awareness, consciousness."
Today, she glows with health and positivity. Her fingernails are painted bright pink.
She will have regular three-month check-ups, and blood tests, for the next few years.
"You can't officially say you're cancer-free until you've been in remission for five years. I try to keep as well as possible [but] I know myself, it's not going to come back. You know when you just know something? Well, I'm going with that."
Her work helping other cancer survivors is special.
"I'm a big believer of being predestined to do stuff.
"I was meant to go through that, I had to go through that to find my purpose, and find my direction.
"Sometimes you just have to go through things - those tower moments where everything falls to the ground."
• For more information, or to contact Kelly, go to foundationeffects.co.nz
• Get behind breast cancer awareness month by contributing to the Pink Ribbon Street Appeal; the Pink Ribbon Walk Challenge and Go Pink for a Day workplace events. For more information to go breastcancerfoundation.org.nz
Tauranga's Hot Pink Walk was October 5.
Rotorua: October 19, from 4.30pm at Rotorua Lakefront Village Green.
• Breast Cancer Foundation NZ offers a free and confidential advice line for anyone going through or worried about, breast cancer. Specialist breast cancer nurses are available 9am-5pm on weekdays by calling 0800 BC NURSE (0800 226 8773) or emailing breastnurse@bcf.org.nz
