IT’S easy to overlook the small, everyday elements of womanhood that define femininity - a bra, for example.
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For regional breast cancer survivors and patients who have undergone mastectomies, finding comfortable underwear that is suited to prostheses can be a tricky and expensive task.
Diagnosed with cancer at 37 and following a mastectomy, local mid-wife Kathy Staines struggled to find affordable and adaptable underwear to suit the life-changing loss of one of her breasts yet was still respectful of her young, feminine taste.
A recent shopping trip to Centro Mall landed Ms Staines in the underwear section of Best & Less.
What she found, she couldn’t believe.
“It’s really hard to buy an actual mastectomy bra anywhere,” she said on Monday.
“But I came down and saw that they had these bras with an insert… I bought one and took it home and tried my prosthesis in it and it actually fit. I was actually so excited that there were all these colours because mostly we can only get plain bras.”
Following her discovery, Ms Staines wrote to Best & Less HQ.
“It was wonderful to be able to pick up in Goulburn a bra off the shelf that I can put my breast prosthesis in,” she wrote.
“It’s pretty and comfortable and younger looking. It means the difference between getting a breast reconstruction and not… please do not lose this line.”
Following her letter, designers of the crop-style bras ‘Andorra’ signed on as Platinum Sponsors of the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF), with a $100,000 donation. They have agreed, alongside design consultation with Ms Staines to create and stock a full-range of the insert-bras in Best & Less, permanently in a wide range of styles.
“Kathy’s Story” is now printed on special Breast Cancer tags in Best & Less, alongside the ‘Andorra’ pledge to the NBCF.
“It’s absolutely fabulous,” Manager of the Goulburn Store, Raylene Lockett told the Post.
“It’s great that Kathy wrote to head office to let them know that this bra was what she was after and what she needed to be able to keep feeling feminine. It’s really important – it’s a major thing for you to go through.”
For more information on the Young Hope Breast Cancer support group call Mel on 0428 225 356 or Kathy on 0437 608 615.
