Girls of Cancer: Miss August

Adamari López Toro

We're only eight months into my Girls of Cancer Calendar and I’m already digging deep for cancer-surviving hotties. I blame this on Melissa Etheridge. Every time I search for famous cancer survivors, she pops up, and I’m forced to quit my efforts and gargle with Listerine—the brown, burning kind.

My searches eventually led me to Adamari López Toro, a stunning Puerto Rican actress who has never appeared in American media and, unfortunately, has no relation to Benicio Del Toro. Adamari is famous for being in Mexican soap operas including Camila and the megahit, Amigas y Rivales. What, you haven’t seen them?

Adamari is a favorite target for the paparazzi and gossip magazines. She was also featured in People en Español’s Los 50 Más Bellos (The 50 Most Beautiful) in 2007. I should have never stopped at Spanish 4.

At 4 feet 10 inches, Adamari is, by some classifications, considered a little person. In 2005, she was diagnosed with “stage 1” breast cancer and underwent surgery. She is now in remission. The five-year survival rate for stage 1 breast cancer is a whopping 96-98%. In other words: women, please do whatever you can to detect it early.

I don’t mean to play favorites, but if this Girls of Cancer Calendar was real—meaning that I invested my hard-earned (well, at least earned) money into the production of glossy calendars with pictures of women who survived cancer, one of whom has sadly passed away (Farrah Fawcett as Miss March)—then I would likely choose Adamari for the cover.