BY ASHLEY HOPKINSON / Assistant News Editor
A paintbrush and a palette of rainbow colors is not your typical cancer patient’s badge of honor. But for 35-year-old cancer survivor Kristen Hunt flowers on a canvas mean more than just art.
Within weeks of relocating to Auburn from Columbus, Hunt was diagnosed with breast cancer in a routine mammogram exam and underwent a double mastectomy.
During her painful months of recovery Hunt said painting was therapeutic and brought her the most comfort.
“I can’t sit still, as soon as I was able to pick up a paint brush,” Hunt said. “I said to myself I’ve got to do something.”
With the help of Auburn student volunteers, Hunt has turned her healing hobby into a growing business. Hunt said it felt incredible to have community support especially that of Auburn students.
“It made me feel loved and needed,” Hunt said. “Everybody wants to feel that and they did it selflessly. They kept me so busy, (painting with them) it made me not think about (cancer) and all the bad things that could happen.”
Hunt is no novice to working for a cause, as her three-year-old son, Caldwell suffers from a severe swallowing disability.
At the time of her diagnosis she was raising money to support the Alabama Deaf and Blind Institute.
That is where she met a group of Auburn students from Alpha Omicron Phi and Khi Phi who would later become her friends.
“These kids are like family to me. God put us in Auburn for such a big reason other than we just got relocated,” Hunt said.
Hunt said Auburn students were a great support system; they brought over meals, played with her son and kept the energy going in her house.
“People are genuinely great people. I just believe in the good nature of people because I’ve seen it first hand, for people to give of their time when they didn’t have time to give,” Hunt said. “These kids (Auburn students) are busy they’ve got full schedules and jobs and all sorts of stuff and they still found time to help a 35- year- old woman with a kid feel loved.”
Hunt said the hardest part of her battle with cancer was not being able to pick up her son and the overwhelming physical pain.
“The healing process feels like you have been raked with shards of glass across your chest,” Hunt said. “It was so incredibly painful; I was cut from armpit to armpit.”
Hunt said she did not cry over the mastectomy or losing her breasts. She said she wears her scars proudly because they symbolize her victory over cancer.
“I’m proud they got it, I’m proud it’s done, it’s over with and I’ve got a second chance to live,” Hunt said.
The paintings Hunt sells go toward helping any woman battling cancer.
Hunt said she is so blessed and lucky because many women who are battling cancer are unable to get the health care she received or are undereducated about the importance of self-examination and early detection signs.
“Anything that can help them I want to get it out there in the Auburn-Opelika area,” Hunt said. “This is my home now and (these women) are all my neighbors.”
Hunt tries to use her theraputic expressions of art as a means to assist other women coping with their illness.
“If I can help one person with their co-pay in raising this money and selling these paintings or if I can help them with a tank of gas to get them to East Alabama Medical Center or a Cancer Center in Columbus, anything (at all) that is what we are doing it for.”
Hunt said the paintings, which are mostly monograms, are inexpensive.
Personally Hunt likes to paint flowers and cute frogs because of her love for gardens.
“So many women that get breast cancer, their not going to be around for the cure, this (us painting) is for the fight, the everyday fight with breast cancer,” Hunt said.
Catherine Wayman, a recent Auburn graduate and Alpha Omicron Phi member, said she is happy to be a part of the group of volunteers.
“I love to paint so why not do it for a good cause,” Wayman said.
Wayman, who is also Hunts neighbor, said they have worked from sun up to sun down around the kitchen table monogramming and painting artwork for nurseries.
“Kristen has been a mentor to me and I’ve learned a lot from her,” Wayman said.
Another volunteer, Joshua Manning former president of Greek fraternity Khi Phi said he doesn’t paint, but helps indirectly by running errands and getting supplies.
Manning, who is also a recent graduate in restaurant management, is credited for providing Hunt with her first real meal after surgery, spaghetti and garlic bread.
“I was so overwhelmed, I just burst into tears,” Hunt said
Manning said his friendship with Hunt means a lot.
“She’s like a Mom to me, I just did it because it needed to be done,” Manning said. 
Hunt’s breast cancer is gone but she said her future is uncertain.
“I have two tumors on my liver and a pancreatic bile duct tumor,” Hunt said. “The doctors are still working on a plan because surgeries on these organs can be hit or miss. But I don’t think about it, I feel really good, I feel awesome. I’m still a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a friend to all these kids (Auburn student volunteers).”
“I could not have asked for a better city to have had something go so wrong than Auburn Alabama,” Hunt said.
Paintings are available at Cutie Pies and Details and by special order at paitingsandpolkadots@yahoo.com.