Taking a step out of the norm

In the year 2016, in the month of October I ran a cancer competition on my photography page (Facebook).

I had no idea I would get plenty in-depth responses as stories about cancer is very personal, but I did.

When the responses were pouring in, it became harder for me to choose a winner. All I knew was that I did not want to choose someone out of my own, but I just really wanted God to be able to choose through me. Cancer is not a joke, it is a heavy condition. So by having people open up about it is truly humbling.

When the day came I felt that there wasn’t just one winner, but two or three of them.

I then asked my partner to pray with me and to choose people. We then compared notes and two of the winners were both confirmed without us even speaking to one another about it. Literally I wrote down names and my partner would tell me a name and it would be the exact same name. I was mind blown. This was a confirmation that the winners really deserved this, since God has allowed this to happen.

Shante-Cleo Ferguson was one of them. This was her comment:

“My mom had colon cancer a few times and it wasn’t easy, she’s been in and out of the hospital and we almost lost her but we all thank God for blessing her and she no longer has cancer.

I’ve spent most of my time looking after her while everyone was working and I’m grateful that I could be with her when she needed me.

I pray that there will be a cure for cancer cause its a horrible thing to go through whether you have it or know someone that does have it.”

At the end of the day a couple of the shoots were postponed as Shante’s mom became weak when it was time for the shoot. But I felt like I still needed to press forward.

When I returned from Bangkok I approached Shante again in January of 2017.

At the end of the day, I only shot Shante-Cleo as her mom became too weak to do the shoot on the day we agreed. It is very unfortunate that her mom could not make it, but even so, I think that doing the shoot of Shante-Cleo might have been the main reason why I felt the push. God alone knows.

Shante-Cleo Ferguson is incredibly photogenic! I told her she could definitely do modelling, she’s such a natural. But more than that, she has such a humble and innocent spirit. It was humbling to be able to do this for her.