Finding the Silver Lining & Paying it Forward with HOPE - 6/1/21

A dear friend who I met through an online Mom’s group passed away a few years ago from an exceedingly rare form of sarcoma. One thing she told all of us before she left us was “Promise me you will always try to find the silver lining”. Throughout the last 10 months, it has been hard to do but at times if I look hard enough I’ve been able to find it….the silver lining. This is one of those times.

During one of my sessions with my Siteman Oncology Counselor, she suggested that I do something that I enjoyed as an outlet to refocus my anxiety when it crept up on me. I have always been creative and artistic, so I thought about it and tried to figure out what I could do. I taught myself to crochet after my Dad passed away in 2013 but did not want to do that again. A few weeks went by and I just could not come up with something that would not cost me an arm and a leg, was something that would be easy to do, was repetitive enough to take my mind off of things & possibly something that I could do while watching TV at night with Tim. Then I thought about the bracelets that my friend Shannon made for me shortly after I was diagnosed. If you have been following my CaringBridge page from the start, you have heard me talk about these bracelets and how much encouragement and comfort they have brought me. The bracelets say “BRAVE, STRONG, LOVED, YOU GOT THIS” and have been on my wrist since Shannon gave them to me. She added one that says “WARRIOR” after my first surgery and my big sister, Diehnee, sent me one that says “SURVIVOR”. My bracelets have only come off for my surgeries and that is it!

So, I thought why couldn’t I make bracelets and GIVE them to women I know who had been diagnosed in hopes that I can give them the same encouragement and comfort with bracelets that mine have brought me. I headed to Hobby Lobby, bought some supplies, and got busy. Pretty soon I had a Ziploc bag FULL of bracelets that had all different words on them but mostly the original words that I was given.

I sent “SURVIVOR” bracelets to friends in my Online Mom’s group who have all either completed their treatment or are currently in active treatment for breast cancer – there are 5 of them. I sent bracelets to some women in my “circle” that I know through the boys’ school or my former employer all who have been diagnosed with breast cancer and one who is a breast cancer survivor & was recently diagnosed with a different form of cancer – there are 3 of them. I had a friend ask me if I could talk to a friend of hers who was recently diagnosed and had some questions. I just felt that she needed some encouragement, so off a set went to her. I offered to make them for women in my online support groups & in the past 3 weeks, I have sent bracelets to 22 different women in the US but will also sending 10 with the word “WARRIOR” to someone in Quebec to put in Swag Bags for a Breast Cancer event she is hosting in October!

But the coolest part of all of this is, and the reason for my post is because of an email exchange with the National Breast Cancer Foundation regarding their HOPE Kits. A HOPE Kit is a wonderful care package that is sent to a woman who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Typically, they are paid for by someone and sent to a recipient but can also be requested by a patient themselves to possibly receive one at some point in time. In the HOPE Kits, are all sorts of donated items like lotions, Chapstick, a journal & pen, a beanie, Thrive cosmetics makeup, candy, cards, socks, and other things that can be used during treatment. I somehow received THREE of the awesome boxes and passed on the last 2 since I had already received one. In my email, I asked if they might be interested in some of my bracelets for their HOPE Kits. After sending a few pictures to the Director of Support Services, she responded “these are beautiful! We would love to include them in the HOPE kits! Bracelets with the word “HOPE” on them would be perfect”! So…..I got busy making a set of 100 bracelets that I sent off to the NBCF today! I am so excited that my bracelets will not only be worn by the women to who I have personally sent them to but 100 or more women throughout the United States and who knows where else will have one too!

So THIS is what paying it forward with 100 glass bead HOPE bracelets looks like! My silver lining……being able to turn a negative into a positive and hopefully help other women the way that my bracelets from Shannon have helped me.

XOXO