Legacy Lane pictures exhibit honors most cancers survivors

LAKELAND, Fla. – Five eye-catching photograph portraits of most cancers survivors goal to encourage hope on the Watson Clinic Cancer & Research Center. 

“I hope when they see that photo that they know that cancer is not the end, that there is life after cancer. There is hope after cancer,” Sara Durante stated. 

Durante is underwater for her photograph, surrounded by an umbilical wire. It’s to honor her battle with ovarian most cancers, adopted by seven rounds of IVF to have her son. 

“I think it just felt powerful seeing how far I’d come in my journey and that my dreams had come true, and now I just got to tell it from the other side,” Durante stated. 

The backstory:

The undertaking is modeled after an analogous exhibition at a Cleveland hospital, however that one options conventional portraits. Photographer Scott Audette had different concepts. 

“For me, it was important to try to tell these stories and create an image that people are going to stop and look at,” Audette stated. 

The aim being, seize somebody’s consideration and, hopefully, he/she’s going to need to study extra. Each portrait options an data card and a QR code that hyperlinks to extra data. 

What they’re saying:

Winter Haven’s Heather Specht overcame breast most cancers. She is actually holding fireplace in her portrait. 

 “I have a history in being a character princess. I was a full-time firefighter when all of this began,” Specht stated. “You could see the actual live fire, my actual old gear. It was special for sure.”

She hopes taking part in tasks like this can assist folks at present battling most cancers and their supporters. 

“I do actually have three friends right now that are going through the exact same thing that I went through. A lot of them are down in the dumps, and I believe doing things like this picture can give people hope that they can actually make it through it,” Specht stated. “My diagnosis was fatal. I felt like I had just months to live, and now I’m proof that you can actually get through it.”

Dig deeper:

Lakeland’s Tanisha McLachlan overcame breast most cancers. She’s in the course of mud run in her photograph, symbolizing one thing she thought she would by no means do pre-cancer. 

“I would never have gotten dirty like that, plus on my clothes as well,” McLachlan stated. “My perspective on life, it made me realize that everything can’t be planned how you want it to be, and that you got to take chances and live a little on the edge.”

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Doug Smith overcame lung most cancers. In his portrait, he is flying an enormous paper airplane to point out his love for journey and journey. 

A fellow Doug, Doug Ballard, could have the weirdest photograph. He’s dressed as a cat, to emphasise 9 lives. Ballard overcame lung most cancers after overcoming different collection of medical illnesses. 

What’s subsequent:

Legacy Lane is a part of the brand new Watson Clinic Foundation’s Art in Medicine program. A grant from the Polk Arts and Cultural Alliance helped fund this 12 months’s photographs. Program Director Tiffany Van Wieren says they plan so as to add extra photographs to the undertaking sooner or later.