A helping hand from a fellow cancer survivor

Twenty-five years ago, Peggy Noles-Schermer of Salem was diagnosed with breast cancer.
When she awoke from her surgery, she found that the doctor had removed one of her breasts because of the disease.
Peggy remembers lying in her hospital bed, crying, and her doctor saying, "Oh, get over it. I saved your life."
Peggy knew very well that the doctor had saved her life, but she needed time to mourn this part of herself that was gone.
After her surgery, it took Peggy time before she could garner enough courage to go to a shop to buy a breast form.
"No one talked about this back then," Peggy recalls of the loneliness she felt.
"I went to a place and a little, blond, 20-year-old opened up a curtain and said, 'They're back there. Go find one that fits,'" Peggy remembers. She cried through the entire experience.
More openness todayabout breast cancer
Much has changed since those days. Surgeries are less radical; doctors understand the significance of this loss to women; women themselves are more open with one another, so no woman is shuffled into a back room behind a curtain to fend for herself.
Now, Peggy is working to ensure that every woman who needs a breast form has one.
For the past 18 years, she has been fitting women with breast forms through her shop, Margret's Mastectomy Shoppe. What was once a part-time venture became a full-time enterprise four years ago. Peggy now has five shops throughout the Youngstown and Akron/Canton areas.
"All my shops are run by women who are breast cancer survivors," Peggy said.
It is the experience shared by the workers and the patrons that gives Margret's Mastectomy Shoppes a warm, inviting atmosphere and dispels any apprehension.
Uninsured womenoften do without
While her shops have flourished because of the love and attention given to women, Peggy noticed that there is a group of breast cancer survivors that is underserved.
"Some women don't have insurance or are underinsured," Peggy explains. "Instead of spending the money, they will do without."
Talking with Peggy, I could see the hurt in her eyes. "I can't stand the thought of that."
Peggy has had women arrive at her shop with tissues or socks stuffed inside their bras to compensate for a breast that has been removed.
One woman had bird seed stuffed into a pantyhose pouch.
"It wasn't bad, really," Peggy says, laughing as she remembers. "Unless she would sweat. Then she'd have a Chia breast!"
Laughter is common at Margret's.
"If you don't laugh about this, then you will never quit crying," Peggy says.
Making sure every woman who needs a breast form has one is no laughing matter for Peggy.
"Families will say, 'You look fine' or 'It doesn't matter,'" Peggy says of the women who cannot afford the prosthetics. "Of course your family loves you, but that is a hard thing to have to hear. These women look in the mirror every day. I want them to smile."
Providing a servicefor forgotten segment
Last year, Peggy started a new service called Cameo Connections. The service provides used breast forms and mastectomy bras to breast cancer survivors who have low incomes or do not have adequate insurance coverage.
"She's been through a lot already. She's had breast cancer and surgery," Peggy says of the Cameo clients. "She deserves the same amount of respect as if she had insurance."
Remembering the insensitive way in which she had been treated after her surgery, Peggy is determined that no other breast cancer survivor be treated in such a way.
"I want her to leave the shop feeling good about herself because she probably came in not feeling so good about herself."
Then Peggy shares her ultimate reward.
"I want her to look in the mirror and smile."
gwhite@vindy.com
XIf you have breast forms or mastectomy bras to donate to Cameo Connections call (330) 726-7067, (330) 337-9930 or toll-free at (888) 767-8938.