Runway of Hope raises funds, welcomes cancer survivors to Central Texas

By LYNETTE SOWELL

Cove Leader-Press

Knoxville Ranch Wedding and Event Venue just outside Waco was the setting on Saturday night for the annual Runway of Hope, held by Pink Warrior Angels.

The show featured 22 cancer survivors from not just Texas, but California, Washington, Missouri, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, as well as British Columbia, Canada. Among them were 18 women, two men, and two children, all facing cancer of different types.

For the women, the runway was a culmination of a three-day retreat, in which they learned from Lolita Frazier, whose Strut Therapy encourages people to walk confidently as they overcome challenges. Rhayne Thomas traveled to Texas from New York to emcee the live show. The blues artist, actor, and spokesperson is the CEO of Reddevah Productions and Prunes Are Sexy!.

The evening also featured a testimonial by Copperas Cove resident Tyra Charmant, battling stage IV metastatic breast cancer, who took to the runway one more time.

Pink Warrior Angels founder and CEO Julie Moser, also of Copperas Cove, talked about the theme of this year’s event and a poignant moment involving Charmant.

“This year’s Runway of Hope was all about ‘hope grows here.’ PWA strives to help families not only with financial assistance but to help families understand that even though their world may be upside down there is always hope,” Moser said. “Tyra said it best by, never giving up, loving each other and always giving time to volunteer. She asked for a last Strut with Runway Coach Lolita Frazier just the morning of the show and we did just that, gave her the love and final wish of strutting with Lolita.”  

One of the models, Mandy Hunt, of Copperas Cove, was diagnosed with stage two invasive ductal carcinoma HR positive in October 2019, followed by a double mastectomy, four rounds of chemotherapy, and multiple other surgeries including 11 reconstructive surgeries. She continues to work as an educator, in spite of it all.

She reflected on the retreat and the show Saturday night, when she took to the runway in a bright-red gown.

“The Runway for Hope experience brought back a spark in my life that I thought I would not get back after cancer,” Hunt said. “For the first time I felt as beautiful as I did before cancer came into my life. It was an experience I didn’t know I needed.”

CJ Sowell of Copperas Cove is battling kidney cancer and is currently undergoing immunotherapy to shrink nodules in his lungs. Like Hunt, he is continuing to work through it all but welcomed the opportunity to get away for the day on Saturday, where he connected with the fellow models in person. Prior to the weekend, most of them had only “met” online via Zoom meetings.

“It was wonderful experience I will never forget. There are times on this journey, you feel like you're alone, even though you have a lot of people supporting you,” said Sowell. “But I've met a lot of people last weekend who are going through the same journey that I am, and I realize that I'm not alone in this…it was more of an emotional weekend than I thought it would be, but it changed my life forever.” 

Pink Warrior Angels provides financial assistance to those undergoing treatment for all types of cancer, although it was founded in 2014 by Copperas Cove resident Julie Moser, a military spouse who had her first diagnosis of breast cancer in 2013. She discovered that while having insurance was a good thing, not all expenses are covered and not all families qualify for financial aid.

The organization assists cancer patients via financial aid grants to help pay medical bills, mortgage, utilities, or other related expenses, as well as provides chemo care kits and other support.

Coming up later this year for PWA is its annual Pink Warrior Dash 5K. in 2022, the organization helped 81 cancer patients, provided more than $34,500 in assistance, 71 care kits, and opened two new chapters, one in San Antonio and the other in Florida.

CCLP/DAVID MORRIS

CJ Sowell (center), of Copperas Cove, is escorted down the runway by Joyce Brown-Arbaugh of Killeen (left) and Sheila Thomas of Illinois (right) at Saturday evening’s Runway For Hope. Sowell is battling kidney cancer and Brown-Arbaugh and Thomas are breast cancer survivors.