10/18/2024
My story..
When boutique owner Deborah was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, she started flaunting her fashion flair with a new purpose: to help other breast cancer survivors.
She felt a lump in her breast in January 2019 and was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer shortly after her 52nd birthday. She sought the help of UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial oncologist Danielle Sterrenberg, MD.
Triple-negative breast cancer means that the three most common types of receptors known to fuel most breast cancer growth – estrogen, progesterone and the HER2 protein – are not present in the cancer tumor. Because the tumor cells lack the necessary receptors, common treatments for other types of breast cancer may be ineffective.
At Sterrenberg’s direction, Deborah began chemotherapy. Like many cancer patients who undergo chemo, Deborah lost her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes during treatment.
“I began to not look like myself,” she said. “When you look in the mirror, you know it’s you and you sound like you, but you don’t feel like you. That can be devastating for someone who doesn’t have the faith and support I had.”
Deborah, who owns an online fashion boutique that sells lingerie, corsets and other clothes, said her business is to make women feel good about themselves. “When I started to feel depressed during treatment, my goal was to give back to other breast cancer survivors.”
In June, she rented space at the Cinema 8 Theater in Lansing and hosted a fashion show to raise money for individual breast cancer survivors. The models, all who had lost a family member to cancer, wore yellow (for her bee-themed boutique name) or pink (for breast cancer awareness) from her boutique in the inaugural “From Yellow to Pink” show. Friends and family attended and donated to the cause.
Deborah, who refers to herself as “Queen Deborah,” also uses her big personality to make inspiring Facebook videos that she posts on breast cancer support group pages. One video called “Bald and Boujee” – a play on the popular song “Bad and Boujee” – encouraged women to feel sexy with a bald head. It got hundreds of views and comments from women saying it helped them to get through another day with cancer. “I just talk and hope that women feel motivated,” Deborah said.
She is also writing a book about her story that will be titled “From Yellow to Pink,” and she hopes to open a physical location for her business in the next year.
Deborah had surgery on her breast in August and will continue treatment with radiation this fall. “‘Yellow to Pink’ is who I am now,” she said. “Cancer is scary, and I have my bad days and my doubts, too, but I have to fight.”
I am now 57 years old .Still Alive !
