Rolling With The Good, The Bad & The Beautiful

‘Tis the season Survivor family and we are super excited to celebrate the holidays with you!

Wherever you are this holiday season, we’re happy you stopped by to join us for a year-end chat. What a year it’s been!

We have learned a lot about our Survivor sisters, breast cancer research, but most importantly we have learned so much about ourselves. From our strength to our determination, we are always in awe of our personal growth, especially through the toughest of times.

Our December survivor knows all about tough times but she seems to roll right through them.

Nikkee McGainey survived breast cancer not once but twice, and somehow never lost energy to pursue one of her all-time favorite hobbies.

“Skating makes me feel like a kid, makes me feel free, makes me feel happy,” she told us during her photo shoot. (Where she was fiercely rocking a classic pair of roller skates, see above.)

Nikkee tells us she’s loved to roller skate from way back in the day when Kim Fields played Tootie on The Facts of Life. We love a good throwback! But even more, we love Nikkee’s playful spirit even in the face of her two-time diagnosis.

As playful as she can be, she is also super business savvy and determined.

Venturing into business as a “mompreneur” as she puts it, Nikkee brought her imagination and dreams into reality by launching N’kee Styles, NKS, a.k.a. Shoes by N’kee, where she focuses on custom designing shoes (new or old pairs).

“Inspired by dreams of color, I blend paints and fabric onto the canvasses of shoes creating a sole elixir of custom designs.”

Nikkee hopes to transform her business into an entity that will help support breast cancer research. She had the chance to tell the world her dream back in 2011 when she was selected to appear on The Wendy Williams Show for a survivor makeover episode. How you doin’?!

“I find freedom and peace in creating beauty, a healing, which I dedicate in honor of other survivors and those touched by breast cancer.”

And Nikkee isn’t just a survivor, mompreneur and avid roller skater.

“I am blessed and alive in this body of energy, created as a woman, molded into a wife, graced to be a mother twice to my own children and humbled by nurtured guidance to many, called to lead a woman’s ministry for several years and after still continuing service as a faithful follower of Christ.”

We are both inspired and grateful that Nikkee is part of our family and has shared her story with us.

“I live each day to give thanks for this life. I have my moments, as do we all, but in them I am training my heart and mind to remember and see the miracle that lives.”

Maybe Nikkee took more from Tootie than just a shared hobby, “You take the good you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life, the facts of life….” (We know you want to sing along.)

Before we sign off for 2017 we want to give a final shout out to our survivor pack. We literally could not do this without you and are forever grateful for your transparency in sharing your stories and such intimate moments of your lives. (Your beauty also makes every calendar page pop!)