Paula Warner

Paula Warner spent 25 years of her life as a missionary in civil-war-torn areas of the eastern Congo. That is where she drew inspiration for a number of her paintings, some of which she created while there.

Doctors believe that one of the causes of her cancer—she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1993 and also had breast cancer—was the huge deposit of uranium underneath the African village in which she lived. She now needs artificial oxygen to function, because her lungs operate at only 25 percent capacity.

Warner’s pieces will be on display at Enloe’s Healing Art Center starting July 10 and will stay up for three months. In addition, the cancer center will show some of her photographs from Africa, which she has compiled into a photographic memoir.