Help Me Finish My Master’s & Publish Drawing for Survival

Hi, I’m Heather. I’m an illustrator and MA student at Camberwell College of Arts—the university I dreamed of studying at for years. I finally made it, and I’m loving it.

In 2021, I was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma. During 12 rounds of chemotherapy, I filled 26 sketchbooks just to stay afloat. Out of that came Drawing for Survival—a 12-chapter visual essay, one for each treatment, documenting my experience of surviving cancer through drawing. It’s a book about resilience, about how creativity became a lifeline when everything else felt impossible.

Studying illustration again helped me fall back in love with drawing—and I’m working towards my dream of teaching at university level, something I’ve wanted since 2015.

But the long-term effects of chemo have made it hard to work recently, and I’ve fallen behind on tuition fees. The postgrad loan doesn’t cover the full cost, and there’s no maintenance support. I’ve applied for every fund I can, but I’m still stuck.

This crowdfunder will help me stay on the course, finish Drawing for Survival, and show my work at my final degree show—which happens the week before I reach four years in remission (26 July 2025).

And I don’t want to just ask for help—I want to give something back.

If you donate, you can choose from rewards like:

• Pages from my original chemo sketchbooks

• A copy of Drawing for Survival (coming November 2025)

• Prints, portraits, illustrations, T-shirt designs—even custom music videos

If there’s something creative you want—I’ll make it.

Thank you for reading and for helping me keep going. This truly means the world.

—

Heather Savage

@_heathersavage