HERS Breast Cancer Foundation :: Bras for Body & Soul

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The HERS Breast Cancer Foundation, a 501(c)(3) a non-profit organization, provides programs and services supporting the needs of women and families affected by breast cancer in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bras for Body & Soul is a specialty bra shop and extended services for all women, including women who have had breast surgery, in order to make a positive difference in women's lives.

News >> Quilt Commemorates Victims, Honors Survivors of Breast Cancer

by Marian Liu, Staff Writer
San Jose Mercury News, San Jose California
This story first appeared in the SJMN on Thursday, October 18, 2001. Republished by permission of the SJMN.

Raeleen Lester never thought breast cancer would hit her.

As a nurse and a coordinator of a breast cancer walk, she was the one to help patients. But last November, a month after her planned walk, she became a patient herself. And on Wednesday, at Washington Hospital in Fremont, she signed her name on a breast cancer quilt she helped make possible.

"We are all vulnerable,'' said Lester, director of nursing at Washington Outpatient Surgery Center. "Breast cancer chooses anybody.''

The quilt will be on display at Washington Community Health Resource Library for the rest of the month. It's the brainchild of the HERS Foundation (Hope, Empowerment, Renewal, Support), the only breast cancer survivor organization in the Fremont-Newark-Union City area. Members call it the "Threads of Hope Breast Cancer Quilt Project.''

"Our culture needs more rituals to help us get through healing,'' said Cheryl Maloney, executive director of the HERS Foundation. "To the casual observer, the quilt may seem corny. But when you come here and sign the quilt, it's an honor. It gives us hope to go on.''

Lester's daughter added a heart patch with her mother's name to the quilt.

"My mother's name on the quilt is symbolic of what she's been through,'' said Rachel Kendall, Lester's daughter, through tears. "It means that she's going to survive.''

Lester was among more than 50 people who dropped in Wednesday to sign the quilt. More than 500 people have signed the quilt to commemorate a loved one who has died from cancer or honor one who has survived. Survivors also sign it as symbol of their victory over the disease.

Not far from Lester's name was Tamara Brown's. Brown was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 1995 and died in May. Her whole family rearranged their afternoon plans to come to the signing. Each was from a different city in the Bay Area, but each wanted to pay tribute.

"To be able to come today is an honor, privilege and pleasure to honor and remember Tammy,'' said San Jose resident Debra Johnson, Brown's aunt.

Johnson signed on the quilt, "Thanks for being our light.''

Charles Brown, Tamara's husband, wore a T-shirt with her wedding picture with the inscription, "In loving memory of my beautiful wife and best friend Tammy.''

"Through the whole ordeal, she was always lifting our spirits,'' said Charles Brown, a Hayward resident.

Tonight and every third Thursday of each month from 7 to 8:30 p.m., HERS holds a monthly breast cancer support group at the St. Anne's Episcopal Church on Driscoll Road.