Cancer survivor battles for others
Kandice Rose is a girlie girl.
“I have glitter in my veins,” quipped the petite 31-year-old with a chic pixie hairstyle and popping pink lips. “Loving girlie things and celebrating being a woman doesn’t have to stop with cancer.”
This three-time cancer survivor should know. She successfully battled stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukemia during high school, requiring a bone-marrow transplant from her sister, a perfect donor match. At 28, she endured a stemcell transplant when the lymphoma returned.
“Thankfully, I’m in remission,” she said.
Her cute pixie is a wig. Treatments left her unable to have children. But cancer’s mark was Rose’s roar, said friends, who have watched her do battle on behalf of cancer patients, survivors and caregivers through her Pretty Girls with Cancer nonprofit.
“It’s a sisterhood, a sorority, women helping women through a difficult time,” said Rose, who founded the group with friend Lindsey Apostolo. The two played basketball together at Cy-Fair ISD’s Langham Creek High School. Apostolo buoyed Rose’s spirits when cancer struck the second time. “Lindsey was all about staying positive,” Rose said.
They went their separate ways during college, reconnecting
years later. Their renewed friendship eventually brought news of Apostolo’s ovarian cancer diagnosis just as Rose learned of her lymphoma’s return.
“We got so tired of medicine, of being stuck with needles, of being baldheaded,” recalled Rose. “I said to Lindsey one time, ‘We’re just like two old women on this phone. We’re too young for this! Yeah, we’re just two pretty girls with cancer.’ ”
The seed was planted, but Apostolo didn’t live to see their idea blossom.
“I do this to honor her and our dream,” Rose said. “Sometimes you feel like you’re the only one fighting, but you’re not. Our group is a place to come for comfort, reassurance, therapy, fun and all sorts of resources. Powerful women connecting, looking and feeling good and making smart choices.”
Visitors to prettygirls withcancer.com can find discount coupons for myriad services and products, such as wigs, eyelash extensions, skin care and nails. Fashion, dining and entertainment options are offered, as well as help with transportation needs.
The group hosts bone marrow donor registry drives as ambassadors for the Gulf Coast Marrow Donor’s Be the Match program.
And, true to this girlie girl’s nature, it celebrates fashion with an annual Kouture 2 Fight Kancer Fashion Show where cancer survivors, patients and caregivers take to the runway. Proceeds will fund the group’s Too Pretty 4 Cancer campaign that links survivors, caregivers and patients through support groups, art therapy and a phone buddy system.
“Pretty Girls with Cancer has got your back,” said cancer survivor Maria Adeoti, 28, in remission from cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Adeoti will model in the fashion show and volunteers with the group’s Totes of Love program that delivers goodie bags, filled with things such as T-shirts, makeup and wristbands, to women and teenage patients. Young girls receive T-shirts and teddy bears. “And we don’t leave the boys out. We get toys for them,” Rose said.
The group has given out more than 400 Totes of Love so far this year.
A Totes of Love drive is planned for the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Houston Methodist Hospital in November. An upcoming exercise Zumbathon, replete with food and raffle prizes, will raise funds for it.
“There’s lots to do,” said Rose, whose group relies solely on donations, some of which will help fund an upcoming “glamping” trip for cancer survivors. “Glamorous camping with arts and crafts, roundtable discussions, exercise, good food. But cabins, not tents. Women know how to do camping right.”