Less than a week ago, Tiffany Schwantes, 34, was hooked up to an intravenous chemotherapy drip at her local cancer center in Huntsville, Alabama, receiving treatment for cancer that has metastasized to her lungs.
On Saturday (February 11) night, she strutted a catwalk draped in a pale pink strapless Dalia MacPhee ball gown for New York Fashion Week, one of 11 people with advanced-stage cancer transformed into models for one glamorous night in Midtown Manhattan.
The stay-at-home mom was diagnosed with stage-four cancer of the bile ducts and liver in 2012 when she was 29.
For just a few hours on Saturday night, all that was almost forgotten. The models, some of whom have had chemotherapy, surgery or radiation, danced their way down the catwalk to Destiny's Child's “Survivor,” sporting floor-length gowns, diamond earrings, and topping off their looks with long lashes and striking makeup.
“No one talked about living with cancer. It was always talking about dying from it. And so this gives patients an opportunity to thrive,” explained Suzanne Lindley, organizer of the glamorous event and herself a stage four cancer patient.
“They get a dress up, have their hair and make-up done, and have an experience that you will never ever expect to have in the face of stage four cancer.”
The “Surviving in Fashion” event was put on by Lindley's “Say Yes to Hope,” a non-profit organization that provides support to anyone affected by advanced cancer, and SMGlobal Catwalk.
“I think we teach people every day that we are all terminal. And so regardless of whether you have cancer or not, and being able to be here you show that you are living with cancer, not dying from it,” Lindley added.
Schwantes, whose son, Carter, is now 11 and daughter, Madison, is 7 said that her illness makes her travel more with her family.
“We actually took them to Disney a few months back and we did everything there and we come here. We just spend a lot of time together as a family,” she said.
Bill Ramey, 60, of Greenwood, Indiana, was in New York for the first time to brave being the only man on the runway. He wore blue jeans and a black sweatshirt that read: “LIVE LIFE, LOVE LIFE.”
“That is the scariest words that you can hear, is 'you have got cancer.' And I am just trying to show them, it's not a death sentence. I am stage four, and still going strong after four years, after I was told I had two,” said Ramey, who was diagnosed with stage-four colon cancer on Valentine's Day in 2013.
“Surviving in Fashion” took place at an off-site venue of New York Fashion Week: the Shows, that will run until Thursday.
REUTERS
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