Fashion show to benefit childhood cancer

It’s a night of glamour for children whose lives have been disrupted by cancer. It’s also a night to raise money for research to fight those cancers.

Models will take to the runway at the Tubman Museum on Sunday for Joshua’s Wish “Catwalk to Cure Childhood Cancer Fashion Show.” The show starts at 6 p.m. and will feature runway fashions and special musical performances.

“We’re going to have the survivors come out on the runway at a certain time during the fashion show,” said Labrina Solomon, who founded Joshua’s Wish after the death of her son from a brain tumor.

The night includes a special performance from Melba Moore, a Tony Award-winning performer who was in Macon last October to perform her one-woman show “Still Standing.”

“She’s going to do a little piece from that and she’s also going to sing,” said Shirley Ellis, who will be hosting the show and is known as weekend personality “Mama Mia” on iHeartMedia’s V101.7.

Ellis, who is also coordinating the show, has promised a real runway experience with fashions donated from a number of local boutiques and stores.

“These are local clothing stores and some of them are not the biggest clothing stores,” she said.

The participating stores also will be donating an outfit for the children to wear.

“We wanted to have a fashion show where (children with cancer) feel glamorous and to get them away from the daily routine of radiation, chemotherapy and just have an evening where they can just come and feel beautiful,” Solomon said.

Michael Johnson is serving as producer and fashion coordinator, and there also will be performances by Phillips Children’s Performing Arts Studio and the Academy of Dance.

This is the third year Joshua’s Wish has held the fashion show. Solomon started the foundation in 2010 — a year after Joshua died from a brain stem glioma — an aggressive form of brain cancer.

“We started by wanting to give back to those who had helped us along the way,” Solomon said. “But then we heard about the lack of awareness — because we were unaware — and the lack of research funding, especially for the type of brain tumor Joshua had, and childhood cancers in general are vastly underfunded.”

“More money goes to adult cancers because there is a larger number of patients, but people don’t stop to think about the number of years lost when a child dies from cancer,” she said. “We just want to bring it to the forefront and keep it on their minds so they know children do get cancer and sometimes, unfortunately, they die and there needs to be more awareness and more research funding so there can be a cure.”

This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Fashion show to benefit childhood cancer."