Paulette Leaphart

Paulette Leaphart (born 1966) is an African American woman, mother, and breast cancer survivor, who has become known through her self-advocacy and raising awareness for other women with cancer who cannot afford post-surgical treatment including reconstructive surgery, through an extreme distance walk from her home in Biloxi, MS, to Washington D.C., which she completed on June 30, 2016 with one of her children, of whom there are eight and of whom four had started the walk, with her. Prior to her walk, she had starting shooting a documentary with a production company about her planned journey, funded via a Kickstarter campaign. This film, Scar Story, was halted in production due to conflicts between the film crew and Leaphart, which resulted in a separation of the partners from participating in Leaphart's walk. The documentarists used Paulette Leaphart's image, name, and story to raise funds via kickstarter without Paulette's knowledge or permission. During her walk, in uwhich she went without a shirt to draw attention to her double mastectomy, she at times had to explain her legal rights to be seen without a shirt in public.

Leapheart was featured as a performer in the musical artist Beyoncé's video album, Lemonade, during the casting of which, she showed the trailer of a documentary which was being filmed as she prepared for her journey, and later spoke about it with the artist.