A terminally ill woman has recorded her journey with ovarian cancer in a unique photography book that she hopes will raise awareness about the disease and that has given her “a purpose” in life.

The book will be her legacy and a springboard for the artists behind it, she says.

Janette Marsh, 67, was diagnosed with the hard-to-detect illness 14 months ago when she was told she could not be cured.

On her insistence to know the hard facts, she was told she had no more than five years to live – even though she is “not done yet”. 

Through an artistic collaboration with curator Andrew Borg Wirth and photographer Marija Grech, she has since captured a “hell of a year” in Stories of Home.

Borg Wirth and Grech have been following her since her diagnosis in December 2020, a year after she started trying to understand what was wrong with her.

They created a curatorial project that began as an exhibition idea and developed into a book when the photos shot on film took on a life of their own.

“Janette wanted to create a record – some kind of artistic montage – of her journey with cancer. To this end, she was prepared to surrender herself wholeheartedly to a project I had the liberty to steer,” writes Borg Wirth in his essay for the book.

Marsh invited the artists into her home and exposed herself – both physically and emotionally – to the camera, uncovering her vulnerabilities and allowing the trio to build a record of her experiences and a deep relationship.

She feels the end result captures “the very essence of a moment in time; the absolute reality of cancer. 

“I am the subject, but it is cancer on the pages,” she says about these “moments that say so much” – and not just to her.

“As a spectator, you cannot but be moved by the film photography and the artistic creativity,” she maintains.

“It is raw and real, but it is not a pity party,” says Marsh. And she could well be describing herself.

“I want this book to be a platform for them as the innovative, creative artists that they are. I want this to be a springboard for Marija and Andrew too. They are so talented.”

Marsh puts on a brave face, only rarely punctuated by tears, while recounting her painful ordeal that unfolded in the middle of the pandemic.

The active and energetic career woman had been feeling unusually fatigued and was experiencing pain in one side of her lower abdomen. But for a while, this was put down to mundane ailments when, all along, a huge tumour was spreading.

And this is where her aim to raise awareness arises from. Janette intuitively knew something was amiss, but she was also “one of those women who thought ovarian cancer could be detected by a Pap smear”.

For this reason, she wants to talk to women about the symptoms; tell them there is no screening for the disease. 

Marsh has undergone chemotherapy, surgery to remove much of her insides which led to an emergency operation, a stoma in her back to drain urine from a kidney, and other medical setbacks that have drained her physically and emotionally. 

She has suffered so much pain due to complications and the effects of drugs that she had reached the point of wanting “nature to take its course”. 

But her surgeon told her: “We are better than nature.” 

And it is this humanity that has kept her going as opposed to being left to her own devices in critical moments.

Marsh, formerly a “gym bunny”, acknowledges she is a shadow of herself, having lost weight, all her muscle and unable to wear waisted clothes.

“My hair was always my crowning glory,” she says, referring to her corporate career days in the world of luxury brands when she was based in South Africa. 

That moment she broke down as the hairdresser put his consoling hands on her shoulders before she had her hair chopped off is captured on the first roll of film.

The book also includes nude shots as Marsh was unafraid of comparing her changing body.

Marsh moved to Malta and made it her home seven years ago. Now, one of the few remaining years she has left to live has already gone, but she does not dwell on it.

“I still have things on my bucket list… Visiting India is a dream of mine,” she says.

Marsh and her husband left England as a newly married couple when she was just 22. After 44 years of marriage, her first thoughts went to her life partner, Rob, and how he would be impacted by the diagnosis she was just given.

“I am worried for him because we only have each other. We have been that sort of couple,” Marsh says.

“It is just my husband and I; no children; no family. He has no one to talk to and comfort him,” she says of their deep bond that is also caught on camera.

The project, inspired by the work of American author and political activist Susan Sontag and the Russian American cultural theorist and artist Svetlana Boym – both cancer sufferers – has helped them.

Stories of Home is due to be launched through awareness-raising talks this month, culminating in an art gala dinner, with proceeds from book sales going to the Malta Community Chest Fund, which has been paying for Marsh’s expensive medication.

The idea of an exhibition in London is still brewing, not for herself, but for Borg Wirth and Grech, and for ovarian cancer.

“I want this book to be a platform for them as the innovative, creative artists that they are. I want this to be a springboard for Marija and Andrew too. They are so talented.”

As she leaves, Marsh, both bold and vulnerable, expresses worry and hope that nothing goes wrong, so she can make it to the anticipated gala on April 9 – forever aware that cancer is lying in wait in the wings. 

Details of the event can be accessed from storiesofhomebook.com