It’s all coming off for participants in the Alberta Cancer Foundation’s second annual Underwear Affair to raise money for cancers below the waist.
But, while some will be clad in the bare minimums, one team has created wacky costumes that have the ladies in thin animal-print cotton and the men shirtless with loincloths.
They’ll be baring their teeth, and skin, in the five-kilometre walk to raise money for their friend, Barb Ward, who is the inspiration for their name ‘Barb’arians — and walking, too — despite the fact she underwent chemo Friday for her second bout of ovarian cancer in two years.
The 12 team members have raised $23,000 and are currently in the top standing for money raised.
“When people know someone like me that has cancer, they’re more inclined to give,” Ward said.
She said the tricky part with diagnosing ovarian cancer is the lack of symptoms. She noticed bloating, due to the tumours, but little else before she was diagnosed in April 2007.
The chemical chemo she’s undergoing this time has fewer symptoms than the traditional chemo she had last year, but does make her tired and has the potential to make her feet and hands swell and blister. Regardless, she’s determined to finish.
“I’ll be tired at the end,” she said. “I don’t know how much partying I’ll be doing. I’ll save it for the young ones,” referring to the “sexy barbarian” — her daughter Katrina, 21.
“We’re supporting Barb,” said Wendy Holden, a teammate who’s also been touched by cancer. “She doesn’t deserve this thing.”
