Upcoming Events

Meet the Models, SoCal: Lesley Bradshaw

Lesley Bradshaw is no stranger to cancer. She works for GE Healthcare, so she “talks about breast cancer all day, every day.” It hit closer to home when her sister, Boston model Alison Olsen, was diagnosed with breast cancer at 41. Happily a survivor, Alison rocked our runway this past fall.

While Alison’s genetic testing revealed no breast cancer markers, Lesley wanted to get tested herself. After some “runaround from insurance companies,” Lesley was able to receive testing. It would save her life, when the results revealed Lesley had the BRCA 2 mutation. In 2024, she had a preventative double mastectomy. Reflecting on her decision Lesley says, “it was empowering to get it done. It’s a hard decision and lot of people don’t want to know.”

Today, Lesley does everything she can to help the breast cancer community. She notes, “we spend a lot of time focusing on the screening part, which is great, except that 40% of women still don’t get their screening done and metastatic breast cancer has no cure.” On top of that, finding and understanding trials is a full time job, often not achievable by most of the population. To help address some of these issues, Lesley sits on the American Cancer Society Breast Strategy Roundtable, which aims to tackle some of the continued issues in the breast cancer community.

When reflecting why Runway feels right for her journey, Lesley notes that her front row seat to best friend Sarah Wilfert’s battle with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer reminded her of a conversation they had once: “Two things frustrated Sarah- the first was that when metastatic women die, they are just forgotten. The second is these women are doing a myriad of trials, not only to stay alive longer, but to help science get better and there is no way to honor that sacrifice.” For Lesley, The Runway Show is that exact way to honor such sacrifice, while also celebrating her decision to use such science to allow her the choice to confront breast cancer head on.