Cebu Pink Paddlers hold photo exhibit to raise breast cancer awareness
The Cebu Pink Paddlers together with local artists unveil the “Our Brave Choice,” photo exhibit at the Radisson Blu Hotel on Saturday, April 9, 2022. | Glendale G. Rosal
CEBU CITY, Philippines— The Cebu Pink Paddlers, known for their prowess in dragonboat, initiated a unique project to further raise the awareness on breast cancer.
The Cebu Pink Paddlers comprised of incredible women who survived breast cancer partnered with several local artists for a one-of-a-kind project dubbed as the “Our Brave Choice.”
A dozen of Cebu Pink Paddlers’ members who underwent mastectomy while battling breast cancer, bravely unveiled their scars and turned into a beautiful art canvas through body painting.
The unveiling of the “Our Brave Choice,” happened on April 9, 2022, at the Radisson Blu Hotel featuring the 12 volunteer members of the Cebu Pink Paddlers and partner artists.
To immortalize the masterpieces, they collaborated with renowned international photographer Ted Madamba. The portraits of the 12 canvases were displayed during the unveiling on Saturday.
According to Cebu Pink Paddlers’ chairperson for its advocacy committee and the board of directors member, Vivian Veronica G. Borromeo, they’ve been planning to hold such unique event since 2019.
However, it was shelved due to several reasons, until late 2021 when Madamba pushed her to initiate the project for the celebration of Pink October or the Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
From then on, they started to materialize the inspiring project.
“Through a discussion of ours, Ted and I said that it would be nice to have a photography session through body-painting, that’s always one of my dreams and it turns out that it’s also one of his dreams. That was in 2019, we tabled it, nothing happened because and fast forward to 2021, in the midst of pandemic, he sent me a message and he said, it’s time for us to do the body-painting for Pink October,” said Borromeo.
“However, it was a month and a half before Pink October. From there, we created the mechanics, I started looking for breast cancer survivors from Cebu Pink Paddlers to bare their scars.”
The artists that took part of the project are Joan Martinez Florido, Elna Rizada, Abigail Buenaventura, Charles Bobson Gonzales Noguera, Alean Jovita, Jessica Igana-Dante, and Rhodesa Uy Cruzet.
Borromeo also noted that they were planning to hold various exhibits in the coming weeks or months in Cebu, the entire Cebu Province, and hopefully in Manila and abroad.
“The canvas is going to be the one that will dictate their preferred design, the artist will interpret the design, and Ted will photograph it. Our intention is to do an exhibit and make it a traveling exhibit. Because it’s never been done in Cebu. Our goal is to put an exhibit in the City, the province, Manila, and internationally to create awareness in a different way,” added Borromeo.
In addition, they’re looking for generous sponsors that can support their traveling exhibit in the coming months.
Since 2017, the Cebu Pink Paddlers has been known throughout the country for their incredible way to raise awareness on breast cancer through sports.
For several years, they’re not just active in the dragonboat scene, but in various sports such as marathon until recently, they’ve ventured into this unique endeavour to bring hope to women that breast cancer is curable and not a death sentence.
In addition, the team is also active with their charitable works through free mammograms and other breast cancer-related programs.
One of the 12 canvases featured is from a stage 3 breast cancer survivor for 12 years. The canvas billed as “The Journey,” that wants to send a message to women suffering from breast cancer that ‘there is no right or wrong in their decisions, all they need to do is trust in their journey,’ which means that there is hope in their perilous journey to beat breast cancer.
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