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Models Raising Money For Cancer

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By CHERYL BENTLEY, The Suncoast News

Published: September 22, 2007

Pity parties aren't her style. So Sandra Lee Werner decided to throw a painting party.

She set platters of food around her kitchen and invited friends and family to drop by.

She pulled on a pair of distressed jeans: 'I wear them whenever I want to get a kick out of whatever is going on,' she explained.

And then she let artist Richard Genovese paint a floral design - and one punch-packing word - across her chest where her breasts used to be.

On a cotton candy pink background, running uphill diagonally among the green leaves and daisy-style flowers, was this adjective in blue and black: Beautiful.

'Think of it as a giant tattoo in water-based paint,' Genovese said.

Then she grabbed a bright yellow straw hat, went out to her garden and posed for a photograph she hopes plenty of people will see.

Werner, a former Pasco County commissioner, is the face of October for the next calendar of Pasco County survivors of breast cancer.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It's the month in which Werner was born.

It's also the only month that still needed a model. And it's the month Werner requested when she was invited to be in the calendar.

The other models, including one man, are fully clothed. The pictures have a hint of sensuality, said Karen Brink, the project chairwoman and the office manager for the Florida Cancer Institute's New Port Richey office.

'Women who have breast cancer sometimes feel not complete, and that they lose their sensuality,' she said. 'We just want to show they're still that beautiful, sensuous woman.'

The calendar is connected to Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, an annual walk repeated across America and sponsored by the American Cancer Society. Pasco County's event will be Oct. 20 in Dade City.

All proceeds from the calendar, which was just released, will go toward funding breast cancer research, prevention, early detection and support programs.

'I'm going to sell that calendar all over the place,' Werner said.

AT A GLANCE

ABOUT MS. OCTOBER: Sandra Lee Werner has served on the Pasco County Planning Commission since 1999 and is now the vice chairwoman. In 1980, the west Pasco Republican was one of the first two women elected to the county commission. (The other was Sylvia Young, an east Pasco Democrat.)

Werner, who lost her husband, Gene, to lung cancer, has received a cancer diagnosis twice: in 2005 and again in July.

While undergoing chemotherapy for her first bout with breast cancer, she donned a wig and modeled in a survivors fashion show at Gulf View Square mall. Granddaughter Riley Watkins, then 2, escorted Werner down the runway.

'I don't feel I've ever felt like a victim. I feel lucky to have all these people around me,' Werner said, gesturing to numerous pictures of family in her New Port Richey home.

THE POWER OF PICTURES: Werner and the other models in the Pasco County breast cancer survivors calendar were photographed by John Bretnell. He's a radiation therapy technician for the Florida Cancer Institute in New Port Richey.

TWELVE MONTHS OF MOXIE: To order the calendar, which costs $12, call project chairwoman Karen Brink at (727) 842-8411, Ext. 150.

FIND OUT MORE: Visit the American Cancer Society at www.cancer .org for details on Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, for other cancer-related information and for links to other online resources.

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