Nikki DeLeon was 39 in 2012 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, two months after first finding a lump. “It was shocking,” she says. After a lumpectomy and radiation, she still gets “scanxiety” — anxiety that comes with getting a scan to look for more cancer — at her once-every-three-months doctor visits.
“It’s still in the back of my mind,” she says.
On June 4, DeLeon will walk the runway for the second year at Art Bra Austin, the fifth annual benefit for Breast Cancer Resource Center that pairs women who have had breast cancer with local artists, sometimes themselves, as they turn the article of clothing most associated with what they have gone through into a statement of triumph.
“Walking the runway for Art Bra this year means that many women will not have to face breast cancer alone,” she says.
Nicole Villalpando talked to six sets of artists and survivors who will be on the runway June 4. Meet them and see their works of art.
