Model: Candace Rae
Birthplace: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Now Lives: Bermuda
Stats: 33-24-34, 5'5", 105 lbs., red hair, brown eyes.

Check out behind the scenes video of Candace on her shoot - Click Here!

It's easy to feel hopeless when you see all of the cruelty and rage in the world today, but then someone like Candace Rae comes into your life and makes you believe there's hope for us after all.

From the moment you meet her, your energy level rises because her exuberance is contagious. During one early-morning job interview, her boss-to-be stopped her in mid-sentence to grab another cup of coffee because, he said, he needed more caffeine to keep up.

The life of the party? Candace IS the party! For her Savvy.com photo shoot, she flew into Atlanta as a stranger and quickly found half the town begging her to stick around for a while. She loves drinking beer and watching hockey. In other words, we found our dream girl.

She's also an apparent "Jill of all trades" whose resume includes various stints in retail management, work as a fashion buyer and designer, massage therapist, as well as a political consultant. With this pictorial, she can officially add professional model to that list. Is there anything this woman can't do?

During her chat with Savvy, we learned that it nearly wasn't to be. This is the story of how a chance encounter led to a friendship that we hope endures...

Savvy: At long last, your pictorial!

Candace: Yay! I am so excited! I hope everyone likes my pictures!

Savvy: Everyone seems to love your personality and looks, but I bet a lot of your fans don't realize the drama from your past, the reason you have a scar on your side.

Candace: Right. When I was 16, I started to get really sick from kidney and bladder infections. This went on for about 5 years. One day, I collapsed at work, and the doctors couldn't tell what was wrong with me other than deficiencies in my blood. I couldn't walk. I had to get a spinal tap. I was basically on my death bed because they couldn't figure out how to fix me.

Savvy: Your death bed?

Candace: The doctors told me, "You aren't going to make it to the end of this year."

Savvy: Wow...

Candace: Imagine if you were 22 years old and were told you won't make it to 23. I determined that if I made it out of that bed, I was going to live my life differently.

Savvy: How come you aren't dead?

Candace: I met a doctor who gave me herbal medication. I also had some surgeries done. I'm not 100 percent better, but I'm enjoying my life.

Savvy: How did you decide to "live differently" after that?

Candace: I realized that people should embrace life with positivity because you just don't know when you could be cut down and your life end. It could have ended for me at 22.

Savvy: We're glad it didn't.

Candace: The universe is a funny thing. The doctor just happened to come in to the hospital when I was there and just happened to have seen my condition before. I was really lucky he was there because he started the process of my feeling better.

Savvy: Great... How did you first find Savvy.com?

Candace: I was browsing online, researching a car, and saw a link for a car article and clicked it. Savvy popped up and I thought, "This is a cool site!" I fell in love and never left.

Savvy: Why are you our biggest cheerleader?

Candace: What's NOT to love about Savvy? I mean, it has everything. You can blog, meet cool people, see sexy photos of girls. It has everything to satisfy your needs. It has changed my life.

Savvy: Granted, we are a bunch of handsome scoundrels, but how do you mean?

Candace: Ever since I became a part of Savvy, my life has been so different! Within a year of my first visit to Savvy, I was posing for a professional photographer. I've been treated with the utmost respect by the Savvy staff and met the most amazing people at Savvy. I have my own website now because of those fans I've gained here. Now I may have an opportunity to get a hosting job on TV because of them. Has Savvy opened doors for me? Ever since I've taken an interest in Savvy.com, my doors, my windows, my roof have been blown off! (Laughs)

Savvy: We'd be happy just to knock your socks off. (Laughs) What about this hosting thing?

Candace: It is a travel show on a travel channel, not THE travel channel. Basically it is going into bars and hot spots around the Caribbean, talking to the locals and showing why people should go visit these places - why it's fun there. (Laughs)

Savvy: Any place is a blast with you around. Have you always been this much fun?

Candace: I've always been a party girl. Since I was a little girl, I've wanted to be a part of everything. I love being part of a group that gets together and has a good time. I'm not shy and I don't think you can know enough people.

Savvy: You're a Canadian who ended up in Bermuda. You said you'd love to end up selling your designer panties in Malaysia. Do you have ants in your pants? Or, should I say, your pant-ies?

Candace: (Laughs) I'm a firm believer that you should try to enjoy life as much as you can, see as much of the world as you can see. The world is so huge, yet so many of us keep ourselves in one little corner of it.

Savvy: Why are panties so sexy?

Candace: Because women tend to feel sexy when we put them on and see how much men want us to take them off. You can see a girl walking down the street and wonder what type and color of panties she's wearing. That's sexy.

Savvy: What's the sexiest thing you've ever done?

Candace: It involved being pressed against the glass of a window at the top of a skyscraper in downtown Kuala Lumpur and not caring who was watching us. I wore a mini-skirt for ease. (Laughs) That was a huge turn-on. Of course, doing my Savvy photo shoot was so sexy too!

Savvy: Tell us about it.

Candace: I was so afraid I'd react like a deer in the headlights. It felt so sexy being topless with just my hair covering my breasts. It was a little naughty. Plus, I've always been the girl who everyone called "cute". It was nice to be thought of as the "sexy" woman for a change. Getting to work with Rick Hughes, his make-up artist Jodi, and Steven from Savvy was like the cherry on top of the cake, baby!

Savvy: There's nothing "cute" about your pictures here, you sexy thang!

Candace: Posing was a dream come true. Savvy used photos of me in your Christmas gift guide and that has already led to some other modeling jobs. I'll cherish that weekend even though it ended badly.

Savvy: Oh yeah? What happened?

Candace: I flew from Atlanta to Chicago. It was a fantastic trip, and I got recognized by someone who saw me on Savvy! (Laughs) But in Chicago, I realized my purse was stolen so I had no money and no cell phone to call anybody. The level of security at O'Hare had gone up. My flight got delayed by 8 hours, and I got pushed to standby so I didn't even get on that flight!

Savvy: That sucks.

Candace: This guy who was waiting to board another flight saw what a wreck I was and gave up his seat for me so I wouldn't have to stay overnight. He was incredible! I finally arrived in Canada at 11 o'clock that night.

Savvy: Rough day!

Candace: But wait! It gets even better. (Laughs) The Canadian government grilled me for an hour-and-a-half, wanting to know why I was in Atlanta and why I had so much lingerie with me. I told them I was modeling and they didn't believe me, even though I had a copy of the Savvy model release. They did a strip search and treated me very disrespectfully.

Savvy: How dare they mess with one of our Savvy Girls! We're the only ones who get to order you to get naked! (Laughs)

Candace: (Laughs) I had half a sandwich with me and they warned me that if I brought it with me, I would be fined $500! I failed to make the check that I was bringing food into the country. I told them to go ahead and confiscate the frickin' sandwich! (Laughs)

Savvy: They didn't know they were messing with a girl about to get her own travel show on TV! (Evil laugh) Mu-Ha-Ha-Ha! (Pretending to be Candace) "Manitoba sucks ass!" (Laughs) Just kidding.

Candace: I definitely prefer the warm weather in Bermuda to Canada this time of year. After I finally got settled in Winnipeg, the car I was driving got hit from behind and I had a pinched nerve.

Savvy: (Laughs) How can you say that was one of the best weekends in your life when you went through all of that B.S.?!

Candace: It's important to have a positive outlook on life. But I was SO ready to return to Bermuda.

Savvy: Running out of space here, but guys want to what a man needs to get you in his bed.

Candace: A Ferrari and a 12-inch... (Laughs) Just kidding! I'm all about the way a man respects me in public, how he treats me. I need to know there is trust. He also can't be the jealous type because I flirt with everybody. (Laughs) He has to be someone I feel comfortable with. I'm a good judge of character, and I trust my gut. It has never done me wrong.

Savvy: You and that gut have been through a lot. You're a wonderful human being and brave for overcoming so much. If only we could clone you! (Laughs) You deserve success and happiness.

Candace: (Crying) That's just too nice. Thank you so much for everything.

Savvy: If you disappear from Savvy now that you've gotten a pictorial, you'll break the hearts of thousands of men in every corner of the world.

Candace: Oh, don't worry! I am hooked on Savvy!

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On the Web:

http://candacerae.blogspot.com/

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Credits: Rick Hughes, photography; Jodi Gross, Joditothemax, make-up and hair; Steven Stiefel, words and video. Additional images by various photographers were added to this pictorial after it was originally published. The original shoot was done on location at the Beverly Hills Inn in Atlanta, Ga.