Breast cancer survivors take NYFW runway by storm in ‘act of resistance’

Dozens of breast cancer patients and survivors stole the show at this year’s New York Fashion Week — by proudly displaying their scars and unfiltered emotion about battling the deadly disease.

Models and average Josephinas alike strutted down the runway on Sunday as part of lingerie brand AnaOno’s “Cancer Culture” show — with the afflicted storming the stage as an “act of resistance” against both the disease and the beauty standards that don’t align with those living with it.

“It’s a celebration. It’s the biggest kind of way of our bodies, of our strength, of our resiliency, of our warriorwood,” said Sarrah Strimel Bentley, who paired her bra and panties with a pair of Fiorentini and Baker motorcycle boots for the occasion.

Strimel Bentley, of Williamsburg, was the lone New Yorker to strut her stuff, an even extra special moment considering it came on the eve of her 5-year anniversary since being declared cancer-free.

In the years since her diagnosis, Strimel Bentley has dedicated her life to being an advocate and public speaker for women living with breast cancer, especially younger women in need of fertility support.

Before the affliction, she was a Broadway performer starring in shows like “Legally Blonde” and “Cats” — noting her work as an advocate has now proven to be its own beast.

“When I was performing on Broadway, I was playing a part and a character, and now this is my story. So I own it. And there is this power in owning your own story and your own experience,” Strimel Bentley, 43, explained.

The “Cancer Culture” show was far from the stuffy, noise-free fashion shows typical of the see-and-be-seen Fashion Week extravaganza.

The women — who call themselves members of the “worst club, best members” — charged across the stage in lingerie to proudly show off their scars, including some women who had double mastectomies without reconstruction, to a rowdy crowd that screamed and danced along with them.

“To be walking in the face of what I’ve gone through in the last five years and to be walking proudly for myself and every woman that walks this path was unlike anything I’ve ever done, any performance I’ve ever done, any stage I’ve ever been on,” Strimel Bentley said.

“I think I cried 15 times before and 30 times after.”

For Brenda Green, an insurance auditor from New Jersey, the most emotional part of the show was before she and the other models hit the stage, when the event producers laid out the heartbreaking statistics that breast cancer kills an average of 1 in 43 women every year — the leading cause of death among women.

In 2025, about 317,000 women are expected to be diagnosed, and 42,000 are estimated to die from breast cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

“I had a tear coming down the runway,” said Green, 45, who was one of the show’s “warriors,” meaning she paired a masqerade-esque mask and fishnets with her lingerie.

“Then I saw my daughter in the front row. Being there and allowing her to see and witness me walking down the front way, just feeling strong and fierce and just happy that I’m still here.”

Green’s 13-year-old daughter was just four when she watched her mother go through a bilateral mastectomy, five rounds of chemotherapy, and lose her hair.

She has been in remission for nine years, a time she has spent coaching other survivors to make the transition from patient back to their so-called regular life.

“When you go through that type of journey, you’re no longer the same person,” said Green, calling the experience a “trauma.” The world expects you to be the same person you were before, but you’re not.”

Walking in a show that centered on breast cancer patients and survivors was a “dream come true” for Green.

“It’s just beautiful … to be a part of an experience where all of us experience something and understands what the other went through,” she said.