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Tea raises breast cancer awareness

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Barbara Perenic/Urbana Mayor Ruth Zerkle issues a proclamation at the Fashions to a Tea: Shimmer, Sparkle and Shine breast cancer awareness event and fashion show at the Champaign County Fairgrounds on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009.

By Kelly Mori, Staff Writer Updated 8:07 AM Friday, October 16, 2009

URBANA — Barbara Lawson never saw herself as a fashion model. But then she never saw herself as a breast cancer survivor, either.

On Thursday, Oct. 15, Lawson demonstrated she could do both during the 12th annual Fashions to a Tea event at the Champaign County Fairgrounds.

The two-year survivor joined 19 other brave breast cancer survivors who modeled fall fashion for the more than 300 attendees at the event designed to celebrate survivorship and raise awareness about the second most prevalent type of cancer.

As the models, who represented survivorship from 20 years to 6 months, took to the catwalk, emcee Ellen Spinner, gave a brief overview of the women’s breast cancer stories — including Lawson’s.

Nearing retirement two years ago, Lawson had not originally planned to get a mammogram. Then she realized her insurance coverage would change after retirement so she decided to go ahead with the screening. “And there it was. Cancer,” Lawson said.

While the event was well organized and speeches were carefully scripted, it was Spinner’s emotional, impromptu tribute to her mother — a two-time cancer survivor — that seemed to best capture the evening’s sentiment.

“Fighting cancer takes so much strength and so much grace,” she said as she addressed both her mother and the other survivors. “Thank you for the grace that you teach to those around you, and thank you Mom for the lessons you taught me.”

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