Let Her Decide

It’s mid-September, and that means it’s time to start preparing your shop for Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) in October. Whether it be sponsoring or participating in events and fundraisers in your local community or making yourself the go-to source for information in your community by posting Breast Cancer Awareness Month-related posts, take advantage of this opportunity to ask for support of the legislation that affects your patients and your business, including the Breast Cancer

Mary Walsh Aframe has been selected as the 2022 EW Ruth Addison Award Winner.  (Waterloo, Iowa)—Mary Walsh Aframe has been selected as the 2022 Essentially Women Ruth Addison Award Winner. Essentially Women (EW) presented the award to Walsh Aframe at a special ceremony during Focus Conference 2022. Walsh Aframe is the owner and founder of The Women’s Image Center in Worcester, MA. She has been instrumental in the introduction of H.R. 5430,

Every woman has her own unique breast cancer journey. Cheryl’s story is no different. Diagnosed in 2004 with early stage breast cancer on the right side, she underwent a lumpectomy, had radiation treatments, and was in remission for several years. However, in 2015, Cheryl was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer on the right side, which happens to be the same side where she had her mastectomy. During the course of chemo treatments, she kept getting infections at the incision site. The infections

August of Action is officially over, and we are all prepping for the busy season, Breast Cancer Awareness Month. During the month of August, Essentially Women hosted a virtual fly-in to discuss the Breast Cancer Patient Equity Act with EW members, Senators, and Representatives from several different states.  Overall, we had 12 EW members reach out to EW and VGM Government Relations to schedule meetings with their members of Congress. Nine

June 15, 2021 WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today re-introduced legislation to ensure breast cancer patients and survivors who have experienced a mastectomy are able to access custom breast prosthetics under Medicare. The Breast Cancer Patient Equity Act of 2021 would provide coverage for custom fabricated breast prostheses—which, unlike other prosthetic devices, are not currently covered by Medicare—to

Time is a precious commodity that you cannot buy or get back. Sometimes it’s time to act and sometimes it’s time to be patient. Renee Firato’s cancer journey is all about time, taking your time, the timing of surgeries, and the timing of life events. As she was just about to graduate from high school, Renee had her wisdom teeth removed and did not recover well, which ended up leading to the discovery of acute myelogenous leukemia. Within one week of getting her port placed on

May 11, 2021 WASHINGTON — U.S. Representatives Judy Chu (CA-27) and Jackie Walorski (IN-2) today re-introduced legislation to ensure breast cancer patients and survivors who have experienced a mastectomy are able to access custom breast prosthetics under Medicare. The Breast Cancer Patient Equity Act would provide coverage for custom fabricated breast prostheses, the only human body part not currently covered by Medicare, to the more than 144,000 women who undergo mastectomies annually. “Breast

Mastectomy and reconstruction surgeries are not completed without risk to the patient. Approximately 33% of women who opt for breast reconstruction after a mastectomy have surgical complications and 20% require more surgery. Jamie Lee is one of these statistics. Diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 33 as a wife and mother of two young children, Jamie decided she had a lot of life to live post-mastectomy. However, little did she know that a decision to try surgical breast reconstruction would

Jacqueline Cromity has been around breast prosthetics her entire life, but until you need them, you don’t understand the full impact they can make on a person’s life. Jacqueline’s story is one of perseverance. Not only does Jacqueline have a corporate career leading a team at Cisco, but she has a family, has three Survivor Friendly locations in N.C. and is still expanding. Survivor’s Friendly’s purpose is to create a one-stop-shop committed to improving the quality

Due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, Washington, D.C. and progress on many legislative issues came to a halt. The country is beginning to open back up and non-emergent surgeries are taking place again. Because of COVID-19, now more than ever women will be looking for lower risk and non-surgical options after a mastectomy. It is incredibly important that breast cancer survivors have all the reconstruction options available to them after mastectomy surgery, whether that be surgical reconstruction,