The road to recovery from a single mastectomy has been excruciating for Kathy Price-Ratcliffe — it’s where tissue is taken from the abdomen and moved to fill in breast mounds.
Ratcliffe suffered from breast cancer five years ago, it came back and she was treated again in October.
“It’s very, very painful,” she said.
A group of breast cancer survivors with the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester connected her with Bobbi LaVoie who in 2013 had a double mastectomy. In January 2013, LaVoie had a double mastectomy.
“I was diagnosed with breast cancer — decided because I had an immune system issue, implants were not really an option for me,” LaVoie said.
That’s when a breast cancer navigator recommended she spend the next couple of weeks in a recliner.
Frantic, LaVoie said, “I don’t own a recliner.” She adds, “It was very stressful for me. It was something that added 800 and something dollars at a time when you don’t know what your future holds.”
Fortunately, family members were able to raise the funds.
LaVoie says the lift-reclining chair has been a critical part of her healing process, and is now on mission to help other woman in need with the assistance of her brother, Joe.
She calls it “A Chair for Comfort.” It is a chair loan program for woman having mastectomy surgery.
LaVoie has four chairs that are currently in-use in the Rochester area.
“We are desperately in need of donated life-reclining chairs in good condition,” LaVoie states.
Eleven women throughout Rochester have been treated post-surgery so far.
“It is wonderful and this chair which was Bobbi’s chair is comfortable enough that I can actually lay on my side, so that’s really nice,” says Price-Ratcliffe while on track for a speedy-recovery.
LaVoie is currently looking for volunteers and chair donations with hopes of becoming a non-profit organization. She hopes to assist many others for years to come.
Contact information:
“A CHAIR FOR COMFORT”
Bobbi LaVoie
585-727-4866