Creating art inspires cancer patients

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Victoria Manheim, a senior in art from Illinois State University, painted a scene based on a pencil sketch by Roberta Fuller.

Fuller, holding the pencil and sitting beside Manheim, suggested colors as Manheim painted while balancing the canvas on her lap.

"I sketched what gives me hope," said Fuller, 55, of Bloomington.

As Fuller received a chemotherapy drug by intravenous drip, the painting — of the biblical empty tomb in the foreground and Mount Calvary and a sunrise in the background — took shape.

Manheim — using a Styrofoam bowl as her paint pallet — wrote "Eternal Life" at the top of the art.

"What gives me hope is knowing that once this body is done, that isn't the end," said Fuller, who has stage IV breast cancer, meaning it has spread to other organs in the body.

Fuller and Manheim are part of a project — called Wall of Hope — at the Community Cancer Center in Normal to help cancer patients to express themselves using art.

"Instead of focusing on the downside of why I'm sitting here, I'm thinking hopeful thoughts," Fuller said as chemotherapy and art continued concurrently on Wednesday in the infusion therapy area that was packed with patients. "The more hopeful you are, the better you feel and your ability to fight the disease is enhanced."

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