'In a strange way,it was my greatest year yet' ... designer Camilla Franks has spoken publicly about her battle with breast cancer for the first time to Marie Claire magazine.Credit:Georges Antoni for Marie Claire
In her first interview since her diagnosis with breast cancer last May,Franks,42,toldMarie Claireabout her trials over the past year in the lead-up to her business’ 15th anniversary.
“Last year was full on,” she told the magazine. “I was pregnant,I gave birth[to her daughter,Luna],I danced with the devil that was cancer – it was light and darkness all in one. It was tough and it was challenging but,in a strange way,it was my greatest year yet.”
Franks discovered a lump in her breast while feeding her newborn,and received her crushing diagnosis in May,just days before she was due to close Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia.
Rather than cancel,the show proceeded,with Franks taking an emotional bow in the finale,with her fiance,Welsh musician JP Jones,Luna and her mother in the front row.
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Soon after,Franks commenced chemotherapy and made the decision to have Jones,in the company of her closest friends,shave her long,auburn hair to the scalp.
“It was confronting and scary but it was the one thing I had control over,” she said.
Franks and Jones,whose wedding remains on hold for now,met in London nearly 25 years ago,when she was still a teenager. But it took two decades and several relationships between them to rekindle their romance.