Photo project keeps cancer victims' hopes alive

For more information about the Wall of Hope Breast Cancer Survivor's Project in Davis, Calif., call (800) 375-2848.

When Marilyn Gayler Axelrod decided six years ago to feature glamour shots of breast cancer survivors on a portable wall, she wasn't sure of the response she would receive.

The day she thought of the idea she called Kinko's copy shop to see how big its laminator was. She then booked a photo shoot in a department store in Northern California, not knowing who would show up.

Fifty-seven people attended. Nine months later the Wall of Hope Breast Cancer Survivor's Project was displayed at the state capitol in California, featuring 144 color portraits of glamorous women donned in jewels.

Today the wall boasts 1,300 survivors' portraits from California, and Axelrod, who has survived breast cancer for 10 years, would like to include women from all 50 states.

She and her volunteers are in Las Vegas this weekend. On Sunday -- National Cancer Survivors' Day -- and Monday they will conduct a pilot project of the Wall of Hope, hoping that a nonprofit group in Nevada will continue the effort.

More than 150 women registered for the event. Forty-five will get makeovers by Mary Kay Cosmetics and have their hair done by stylists from the William Whatley International Salon before they are photographed. Props, such as jackets, jewelry, wigs and hats, are provided.

The women are looking forward to it, said Audrey Moyer, who has survived cancer for eight years and is the care coordinator of Southwest Medical Associates Breast Care Center. Moyer also heads W.I.S.H., Women in Support of Healing, a breast cancer support group, which is hosting the event. "It's an inspiring effort," she said.

Last year 1,000 women in Nevada were diagnosed with breast cancer, Moyer said. New diagnosis techniques, improvements in chemotherapy and drugs, however, have changed the fate of the disease. A positive diagnosis is no longer the death sentence it once was. "Almost monthly new drugs are being tested and are placed on the market," she said.

The wall is taken to health fairs, malls, seminars and hospital corridors. As soon as it includes women from all 50 states, it will be taken to Washington, D.C., and displayed as the "Mile of Survival," Axelrod said.

"It's emotional," Axelrod said. "There are young women on (the wall). There are mothers and grandmothers. It's a cross section of America."

Using the concept of the AIDS quilt -- a huge quilt with squares representing people who have died of the immune disorder -- the wall project was developed to create awareness and serve as a rallying point.

"There's a lot of power and empowerment in people sharing their stories," Axelrod said. "Survivors want to be heard. They want to have a voice: 'I'm here. I'm worth saving.' "

Each person's name, year of diagnosis and years of survival are listed under their photo. A pink ribbon is placed in the upper right-hand corner of the portrait of those who have died.

It lets people know they are not alone, said Axelrod, who was diagnosed within two months of her mother's diagnosis.

"It's a sock in the face when you get diagnosed," she said. "Then you get sad, then you get mad. It was incredibly scary."

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