It was a windy day in June and Barbara Purdom struggled to hold down her feathery pink boa.

Wrapped in a robe, she walked out on the dock in her bare feet. The six-year breast-cancer survivor dropped her robe and wearing nothing but the boa, lowered herself onto a pink flamingo paddle boat adrift Lake Sammamish.

“It’s a celebration of life,” the Federal Way resident said of the Angel Care Breast Cancer Foundation’s seventh calendar that features 12 volunteers — all breast-cancer survivors, including herself on the pink flamingo.

Last month, the featured survivors — including Kenmore’s Bobbie DeCoster — gathered at Parkplace Books in Kirkland to celebrate the foundation’s calendar kick-off. The nonprofit organization provides volunteers to help people recently diagnosed with breast cancer and give them encouragement and hope.

Redmond resident and 15-year breast-cancer survivor Jan Harris founded the Angel Care Foundation in 1997 to provide one-on-one emotional care to the newly diagnosed across the Puget Sound (and Idaho).

The calendars, which tastefully feature survivors wearing nothing much other than angel wings and cost $15, are to inspire breast-cancer survivors, Harris said.

Dressed in a pink jogging suit, pink Keds, a pink purse and socks with pink bows, 75-year-old DeCoster came to the calendar kick-off event just after returning from a four-week trip to South Africa that day.

While autographing calendars, the Kenmore resident spoke of all the animals she got a chance to see while she was there, including wart hogs and giraffes.

DeCoster, a 15-year breast-cancer survivor, has been featured in the calendar for the month of December since the very first one.

She recalled the first photo shoot, which was taken at her home in the middle of July. Her former husband didn’t know what she was up to and looked puzzled when she crawled into the attic and came down with Christmas paraphernalia.

This year, DeCoster was featured in a 1965 cherry red Ford Mustang convertible, quite fitting for the hair-in-the-wind kind of gal she is.

She was living in China as a teacher when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993. She had come home for New Year’s break when her daughter informed her that there was a postcard in the mail reminding DeCoster of her mammogram.

“How lucky was I to come home at that time and get a mammogram?” she said.

When she found out she had breast cancer, she was mad and scared that she was going to die. She had a lumpectomy and endured 35 rounds of radiation treatment.

Now, she can tell women, “Hey, I had cancer 15 years ago. You have a long time to look forward to,” she said.