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They're Crafting For A Cure

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE

dlwhite@tampatrib.com

Published: October 8, 2008

BRANDON - Two years ago, the first time Riverview resident Kim Tice participated in the 60-mile Breast Cancer 3-Day walk benefiting Susan G. Komen for the Cure, she fell and broke her shoulder after the first 20 miles.

Ignoring the pain, Tice wrapped the shoulder and finished the event.

Last year, on the second day of the walk, she busted her kneecap. Her friends and family begged her to drop out. Tice refused.

"I told them, 'I'm walking, darn it,'" she said. "I know I can do this."

She wrapped the knee and finished the event.

It's not that Tice is a glutton for punishment, she said. She just kept recalling the courage of her friend, Valrico mother Wendi Mangold. She remembered Mangold's perpetual sense of humor, her dignity and her strength as she suffered through the pain of breast cancer and the debilitating effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatments before her death in March 2007 at age 35.

"After all Wendi went through, a busted kneecap was nothing," Tice said. "I knew I could do this. It was all about Wendi."

Tice signed up for her first 3-Day walk in Mangold's honor, and it's in her friend's memory that she continues to participate and raise money to find a cure for breast cancer.

This year, Tice's husband, Les, will join her on the Tampa Bay 3-Day from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 at Fort DeSoto Park in Pinellas County. Each team member must raise $2,200 to participate.

Kim Tice, the owner of Breezy's Beads, a bead craft store at 226 Oakfield Drive, Brandon, once again is counting on friends and customers to help her raise enough money to cover the registration fee.

An avid "beader," Wendi Mangold was among Tice's first customers when she opened the store five years ago. Mangold had just given birth to her first son, Davey. Tice had envisioned creating an atmosphere similar to an old-fashioned sewing circle. She filled the store with tables and chairs, and invited people to come in and chat while they created jewelry and other trinkets with the store's beads.

It didn't take long for her customers to become a close-knit group of friends. As time passed and her sons Davey and Charlie grew, Mangold would drop in for beading classes, carrying one boy in each arm, Tice said.

"We knew before she even told us that she was pregnant with Mary," said Breezy's Beads employee Deb Sallee. "We could see it in her face. I think she told us before she told her husband, Dave."

Mangold's fellow beaders also were among the first to learn that doctors discovered she had a lump in her breast in 2005, a month before she was due to give birth to Mary, who Davey nicknamed "Flower."

Doctors advised against radical cancer treatments to protect the baby. Following Mary's birth, a biopsy showed the lump was malignant and had spread to Mangold's lymph nodes.

She had surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, but her type of cancer was resistant to traditional forms of treatment.

It was during Mangold's first year of treatment that Tice, Sallee and four fellow beaders sat down and created a one-of-a-kind "Wendi" bracelet to raise money for the 3-Day walk, which raises money for research in hopes scientists will find a cure for breast cancer.

"Wendi kept coming in here after chemotherapy," Tice said. "She had a short window between chemo and when the sickness would really hit her, so she would stop in here to bead. She had no hair and we teased her because she had a perfect-shaped head. She would make these really gaudy beaded earrings to wear to show off her head."

"That was Wendi," Sallee said. "She was always laughing. She'd make jewelry and sell it at Moffitt cancer center, too. She brought a lot of women together who had cancer, and we'd sit and talk about it. It's amazing how one person can bring so many people together. She was our hero."

The women at Breezy's Beads continue to honor their friend, raising funds year-round for breast cancer charities and participating in breast cancer events.

For this year's 3-Day, they have created signature bracelets called "Flower" in honor of young Mary. They are made with pink and rose Swarovski crystals, pink alabaster and sterling silver valley beads and accented with the breast cancer ribbon and heart toggles.

The bracelets are available at Breezy's Beads for a $60 donation, $1 for each mile of the Tampa Bay Breast Cancer 3-Day. All proceeds will help cover Tice's registration for the walk.

Breezy's Beads also is selling breast cancer ribbon cookies, bookmarks and other types of jewelry to raise money. Those who are unable to visit the shop can donate at www .the3day.org/site/TR/Events/General?fr_id=1170&pg=pfind.

Reporter D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524 or dlwhite@tampatrib.com.

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