Hermitage woman’s ring design helps fight for a cure

HERMITAGE, Pa. — When Aileen Magnotto went for her breast cancer treatments, all of the nurses were wearing the pink rubber bracelets to show they supported the patients and the search for a cure.

While those bracelets didn’t appeal to the Hermitage woman, she did have another idea.

“Everything is pink. I said, ‘Why not a pinky ring?’” Magnotto said.

But between her cancer treatments, working and being married and the mother of three children, Magnotto put the idea in the back of her mind for a few years.

“I’m not in the jewelry business. I had no idea where to go,” said Magnotto, who along with her husband, Michael, owns the Hermitage Shop ’N Save on East State Street.

But when a mutual friend introduced her to Pittsburgh jewelry designer Caesar Azzam, the idea took on new life.

After a few design changes, the two have finally come up with a pinky ring in the shape of the breast cancer ribbon with a pink stone inside the top loop.

For more, see Sunday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com