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A familiar face will be strutting down the runway at the Haute Pink show by Forge Breast Survivor Cancer Center this month. Team WHIP Founder Narfunda Ross is one of 10 survivors across the state chosen to model a custom design created by a local designer.

“It’s a space where survivors can really be the person that they were before they experienced breast cancer,” Ross said. “… It’s more emotional than it is physical, I think.”

Team WHIP (Working to Help Those In Pink) began as a breast cancer community walk in 2015 and since then has expanded into a nonprofit organization 

Forge Breast Cancer Center, a partner of Team WHIP, supports medical access, health outcomes and quality of life for Alabama breast cancer survivors. Forge sponsors Team WHIP’s Saturday Speaks, the Coffee and Coping Conversation event that Team WHIP hosts every second Saturday of the month. 

Forge hosts the event to spotlight the 1 in 8 women and 1 in 1,000 men impacted by breast cancer in Alabama. The fourth annual Haute Pink Fashion Show will be on Thursday, October 17, 2024, at Red Mountain Theatre Arts Campus.

Amid the whirlwind of fashion, lights and pampering, Ross said the event is a space for survivors to feel like themselves again and let go of their diagnosis for a night. 

Ross said she is most looking forward to meeting other survivors from around Alabama and hearing their journeys of resilience. She said she cannot wait to see a “runway of hope, runway of strength and a runway of faith.”

Out of thousands of survivors across the state, Ross was one of 10 chosen to participate this year thanks to her tireless work within the local breast cancer survivor community. She said she is humbled by being chosen. 

“I feel special because I’m in the top 10,” Ross said. “… It gives me the desire to go even harder in the community, to bring back that same hope, that same tenacity, back to the area, to the [breast cancer] community, to let them know [they’re] in the top 10.”

Like always, Ross said she was “tickled pink” to meet her designer, Marilyn Locke, for her custom outfit. The two got to know each other well so that Locke could design a look that was unique to Ross.

“Her design that she sent to me this week — I’m excited to jump in and walk the runway with it,” Ross said. 

Ross said she would love to bring a similar event to the Lanett/West Point area as well. 

“No one knows the effect they have emotionally and physically from enduring breast cancer,” Ross said. “We have a moment to shine. We have a moment to smile. It builds the inner you. It teaches us to celebrate no matter what it is. It teaches us to find things to celebrate.”

Haute Pink is also a fundraiser that will go to continuing Forge’s efforts for supporting Alabama breast cancer patients, survivors and loved ones. Tickets to the event are $100 and can be purchased through https://hautepink.swell.gives.