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Test Those Breasts ™️
This podcast by Jamie Vaughn is a deep-dive discussion on a myriad of breast cancer topics, such as early detection, the initial shock of diagnosis, testing/scans, treatment, loss of hair, caregiving, surgery, emotional support, and advocacy.
These episodes will include breast cancer survivors, thrivers, caregivers, surgeons, oncologists, therapists, and other specialists who can speak to many different topics.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and not all information in this podcast comes from qualified health care providers, therefore does not constitute medical advice. For personalized medical advice, you should reach out to one of the qualified healthcare providers interviewed on this podcast and/or seek medical advice from your own providers.
Test Those Breasts ™️
Episode 74: Redefining Post-Surgery Comfort: Leah Wyrick's Breakthrough Surgical Bra Design
Meet Leah Wyrick, a trailblazing entrepreneur whose passion transformed personal adversity into an innovative solution for breast cancer survivors. Inspired by her mother’s battle with breast cancer, Leah founded Three Strands Recovery Wear and designed the revolutionary Resilience Bra to address the unmet needs of post-surgical patients. This episode takes you on Leah's journey from high school student to a leader in the recovery garment industry, emphasizing her commitment to enhancing post-operative care through thoughtful design and collaboration with medical professionals.
Discover how the Resilience Bra is changing lives with features like Velcro-adjustable shoulder straps, a secure auto-lock zipper, and integrated breast prosthesis forms. Each element is purposefully crafted to enhance comfort and healing while providing practical solutions for managing post-surgery challenges such as drain bulbs. Hear heartfelt testimonials from women who have experienced the Resilience Bra's life-changing impact, and learn how Leah's dedication has led to her bras being piloted in major hospitals, setting new standards for patient care.
We also shed light on the importance of pre-surgery bra fittings and how these innovative garments empower women on their healing journeys. Leah discusses her vision of making these essential products widely accessible through partnerships with mastectomy boutiques and hospitals. You can purchase one here: Resilience Bra Discount Code 15%
Email: leah@threestrandsrecoverywear.com
Cell: 704-738-7303
Three Strands Recovery Wear on LinkedIn
Three Strands Corp. on Facebook
https://threestrandsrecoverywear.com/pages/resources
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I am not a doctor and not all information in this podcast comes from qualified healthcare providers, therefore may not constitute medical advice. For personalized medical advice, you should reach out to one of the qualified healthcare providers interviewed on this podcast and/or seek medical advice from your own providers .
Hello friends, welcome back to the Test those Breasts podcast. I am your host, jamie Vaughn. I'm a retired teacher of 20 years and a breast cancer thriver turned staunch, unapologetic, loud supporter and advocate for others, bringing education and awareness through a myriad of medical experts, therapists, caregivers and other survivors. A breast cancer diagnosis is incredibly overwhelming, with the mounds of information out there, and other survivors A breast cancer diagnosis is incredibly overwhelming, with the mounds of information out there, especially on Dr Google. I get it. I'm not a doctor and I know how important it is to uncover accurate information, which is my ongoing mission through my nonprofit. The podcast includes personal stories and opinions from breast cancer survivors and professional physicians, providing the most up-to-date information. At the time of recording Evidence, research and practices are always changing, so please check the date of the recording and always refer to your medical professionals for the most up-to-date information. I hope you find this podcast a source of inspiration and support from my guests. Their contact information is in the show notes, so please feel free to reach out to them. We have an enormous breast cancer community ready to support you in so many ways. Now let's listen to the next episode of Test those Breasts. Well, hey, friends, welcome back to this episode of Test those Breasts. I am your host, jamie Vaughn, and today I cannot tell you how excited I am to have my guest, leah Wyrick, on my show.
Speaker 1:I met Leah because she reached out to me on LinkedIn and she has a really incredible story and an awesome way to help breast cancer patients during their surgeries incredible story and an awesome way to help breast cancer patients during their surgeries.
Speaker 1:So Leah is a graduate of the Wake Forest University School of Business with a concentration in entrepreneurship, founded Three Strands Recovery Wear during her freshman year. Inspired by her mother's courageous battle with breast cancer, balancing full-time studies and business ownership, leah witnessed firsthand the gaps in recovery garments while supporting her mother through multiple surgeries. This experience motivated her to collaborate with medical professionals and patients from across the country to create the Resilience Bra, a patented post-operative garment designed to enhance comfort, reduce post-surgical pain and promote confidence for breast surgical patients. Leah's deep understanding of the technical, functional and emotional needs of these patients, combined with her entrepreneurial spirit, has positioned Three Strands as a leader in the recovery garment industry. Under her leadership, the company has secured funding through pitch competitions and grants, while forming strategic partnerships with organizations like the American Cancer Society, all aimed at revolutionizing post-operative care and fostering a supportive community for breast cancer survivors. Oh, my.
Speaker 1:God Welcome Leah how are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm good, I'm good, I'm busy, and I could not be happier about that and just so excited for the opportunity to be here. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Well, you are the one that reached out to me on LinkedIn and I'm so glad I checked that. I don't always check that. I always do recognize when people are trying to reach out to me to let me know about what they've got going on, especially with breast cancer, and I really appreciate it, and you and I had a really lovely conversation. Not even a week ago. We decided to interview with you because what you have a hold of because of your entrepreneurial spirit and your experience with your mom is so powerful and I'm excited to get that out to more people, especially surgeons out there, maybe even ones that I have interviewed.
Speaker 1:You have such a neat story, not in that your mom had breast cancer, because, ick, I just know how devastating that is and how much goes into that, not only for the patient but also for a caregiver. You were in high school when your mom had breast cancer, so you know firsthand what it's like the whole entire time At that time. What sparked my interest with our conversation is that you actually had this concept of this bra in high school. So first of all, we'll talk about the evolution of the bra. I want to talk about your mom's story. What is her lived experience and what was her diagnosis, what were her treatments like and surgery. Can you share a little bit of that?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and it always kind of helps when I start from the beginning, because I was 16 at the time when all of this was happening and actually I was a freshman in high school when I started to learn more about breast cancer in general. I was tasked to write a paper over my four years in high school and over those four years I would understand about a topic and write more about it and then ultimately develop a product to help showcase that paper that I wrote throughout those four years. And I ended up writing a paper and choosing breast cancer my freshman year in high school, not knowing that two years later my mom would be diagnosed with breast cancer when I was just 16 years old. So my mom was diagnosed with stage zero breast cancer. It was caught very early.
Speaker 2:She is obviously one of the has the most strength that I've ever seen in a person and I'm so, so grateful of how I got to watch her go through her diagnosis and see how much strength and resilience and power that she had, which was a very big critical and catalyst for us at the beginning.
Speaker 2:But she was diagnosed with stage zero breast cancer and she ended up having three subsequent surgeries due to the complications that she faced A lot of which I found out could have been prevented with a better post-surgical bra, such as when she was getting in bed one night she accidentally put her knee down on her drain tubing because she had nowhere to put it and she ended up completely ripping it from her skin. She also developed pneumonia in the hospital and her post-surgical bra rubbed against her incisions so bad she got a severe infection in one of her breasts. And it was those little things. I just remember looking at her plastic surgeon and saying there's got to be something better. And after so much research for the paper that I was writing, and then just a general curiosity about what other bras are out there there's got to be something better I quickly found out that there is not. And you know, fast forward, you know, six, seven years later, we're still in that same boat today, which is exactly why we launched our company.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, first of all, the interest of breast cancer before your mom got breast cancer and then the evolution of the broad that concept that came about because of your mom's difficulties is so fascinating to me because, as my audience most of my audience knows what sometimes I pop it in there. I'm a former school teacher, so I taught at a school here in Reno that was a CTE school, that I actually ran the service learning program at that school and it is part of nurturing students to understand what community service is, what volunteering is. And then service learning meaning taking all of your knowledge of what you learned and kind of putting that all together into a project. And they were working in groups and they had to find a need in the community and then work with the community member to help something come to fruition. And then that was in preparation for their capstone project in their senior year. So I organized 45 different groups every year for my juniors and so your story of how that happened is such a huge part of my love of learning and teaching kids before they get out into the community after high school and into college.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. So you created this bra and then you sat on it for a while, yes, and then college comes along. Can you share that evolution?
Speaker 2:Yes, so about two years my mom went through this process with breast cancer. She had her mastectomy, she had expanders put in a failed breast reconstruction, developed an infection which contributed to a longer timeframe, had to get expanders put back in over about an eight month timeframe and then after that went through the implant process as well. So she had really been put through the wringer over those two years. I ended up developing this product after seeing all of that happen, but actually utilizing some of her old bras that she had had from the surgeries. So I kind of the first bra I ever created.
Speaker 2:I was sitting at my kitchen table. It was senior year of high school. I had to develop this product in order to graduate, so I sat down at my kitchen table, I developed this first product and I grabbed a bra that she had used before and I had grabbed some of her old bathing suits that she didn't use anymore to develop this first product of what you're seeing behind me. So that was that first little prototype that had, you know, zero functionality but just gave you a general idea of what it was and hold up.
Speaker 1:That's the bra on the screen. That was your prototype.
Speaker 2:This one is five iterations later. Got it Okay, all right, oh my goodness, I will have to share some photos of what that very first bra looked like. But you know, we had to iterate and just get a general idea for the concept of this bra because there was nothing like it. So after seeing that firsthand, I ended up taking it to my high school board in order to graduate and present that senior project on breast cancer. And then after that I was going to Wake Forest. It was a school I dreamt of going to since I was in seventh grade. I wanted nothing to do with business, I was healthcare all the way. I wanted to be a doctor or a nurse or a PA or something in healthcare, ended up throwing this bra in the back of my closet and went to Wake Forest. I was starting kind of all my undergraduate divisional classes and bio and chem and all that stuff and quickly figured out that I just was not into the science-y part and math. And I ended up walking across the quad one day and saw this opportunity for Pitch Over Pizza, which was an event sponsored by the Center for Entrepreneurship at Wake Forest to just pitch ideas for products and services, and I was like I created something back in high school. This may be a great way for me to meet people and just see what other opportunities are on campus. Went home one weekend, grabbed that bra out of the back of my closet and went and pitched to a couple of different professors and they said you should apply for our startup lab. And that's where students come in and they start to build out that idea or concept a little bit further. And they gave a little bit of funding to these students. So I was the only freshman that ended up getting into the program in 2018.
Speaker 2:Before I knew it, I was a full-time college student, a full-time business owner away from home no friends now building this business from the ground up.
Speaker 2:So it was a little overwhelming freshman year, but I quickly figured out right after that. There is nothing that I would love to do more than to continue building this business. It has so much impact. We've already started to develop such a great concept and we know how badly it's needed in this industry. Let's just do that while I've got the resources as a student, because so many people, especially where I live in Winston-Salem, north Carolina there are so many healthcare institutions here and North Carolina is such a vibrant healthcare space that I had all this access to so many professors, patients and just doctors in general that wanted to help me as a college student. So I utilize that as much as I could over my four years at Wake and I'm excited to say that we officially launched our product after five years of research with so many great partners here in Winston-Salem, we've been able to help so many people around the world in just a short couple of months.
Speaker 1:It's been absolutely incredible to see Well, clearly you have an amazing product, especially with that growth, and I can only see it going further. I am actually wearing the bra that I got from Center for Restorative Breast Surgery today. I wear it usually when I'm working out or something like that, because it's very supportive, but your bra in the background and to my audience. This will be on YouTube as well, so make sure that you're watching. There's a nice visual of a beautiful bra. Can you share a little bit about that bra? What are the features on there?
Speaker 2:share a little bit about that bra, Like what are the features on there? Yes, so to give you a big picture overview, we have basically taken everything that a patient will need and put it in one comprehensive solution so that when patients most times today if you're not aware or haven't seen someone that's gone through breast cancer or any type of breast cosmetic procedure patients will come out, a majority of them will come out with drains after surgery, and drains are the long tubes that have a suction bulb on the end to get all of that nasty fluid out that causes infections and other problems. A lot of the times today, a lot of post-operative garments do not have a place for those drains to go, so most patients are having to duct tape them to their skin. They're wearing aprons around their neck. I've seen some people get pretty creative and create beer koozie belts. You know patients' bodies are very they're changing a lot during that time as well. So finding a bra that can adapt with you throughout different points of recovery whether you're coming out of surgery and you're really swollen, maybe you're going through the reconstructive process and you're getting fills every week or every month and your breasts are getting larger and you need a bra to grow with you. That's what we have kind of factored in into this one comprehensive solution. So the intended purpose of the bra is to be used on the operating table during those first zero to eight weeks post op and that can be used for all types of breast procedures, from a lumpectomy, mastectomy, breast reconstruction, breast reduction, augmentation everything you can think of we have put into this bra. So we are patented. We have gone through many, many iterations. This is number five and we will continue to go through that.
Speaker 2:But the top of our bra here has a little piece of Velcro on the end so that you can adjust the bra at any point along the shoulder strap. So if the patient doesn't want that bra to dig in under their underarm, if it's too tight, they can adjust it to make sure it doesn't do that. They can make sure that if they have access, or if they need access to their port for chemo, they can actually completely take the strap off so they can receive their treatment without actually having to remove the bra in its entirety. Oh, I will say too. So this is our size, large on this mannequin. But all of our XL sizes we go up to a 4XL have a two inch wider strap than the one you see here to support our larger breasted patients. A lot of the times those straps for larger breasted patients will dig in so deep it causes scarring. So we wanted to make sure we give enough support.
Speaker 2:And then it's also made of a memory foam so it's actually really soft, really comfortable and supportive up top. So there's a lot just in the strap itself, but the front closure here is a pretty heavy duty zipper. So the zipper is actually an auto lock zipper. So when a patient puts this bra on and pushes that tab down, the bra locks in place. So you're not going to have an issue with it coming down, falling, you know, the zipper falling down. And then we've also thought of little details like this little overlay of fabric down here at the bottom so it reduces the risk of that zipper poking and irritating your torso as you're wearing it. Throughout those first eight weeks post-op Every bra comes integrated with a breast prosthesis form so it helps kind of round out the cup, it kind of adds a little compression if you need it, and just kind of adds that layer of symmetry for your lumpectomy or mastectomy patients.
Speaker 2:One of my favorite parts about this product is the adjustable band, so you can kind of see it here. This is the adjustable band. It actually sits freely in the back of the bra, so if you can see that a little, bit.
Speaker 1:It sits freely back here and then you can just pull it sort of forward if you need to tighten it, or yeah, what a great feature.
Speaker 2:Take that off like this oh yeah. You take that strap off, you put the bra on, pull it together, zip it up, and then you take this band and you pull it forward for greater compression or leave it back for less compression, depending on where you're at post-op. Wow, Under that band we've got a place for drain management, which you've already heard me talk a good bit about. But this drain pocket goes on either side and it will hold up to three full drain bulbs.
Speaker 1:Really, oh, that's great, that's great.
Speaker 2:So this is one of our patients up here. Her name's Sarah. Sarah had a double mastectomy and she had six drains after surgery, so she ended up using our product. Putting three in each pocket worked really well. And then this pocket is actually made of mesh so you can see drain, output and color. So you don't have to fiddle and mess with it to see how much you're draining, what color that fluid is. All of that good stuff.
Speaker 1:Okay, so she has two drains. She has one back pocket on the other side. I see, yes, okay.
Speaker 2:Basically for a single versus a double. You can remove them, you can add them. Whatever you may need, based on your surgery.
Speaker 1:Okay, Then the feature that you have on the side right here for the cords oh, that's cool, so tell us about that.
Speaker 2:So this was inspired from that story I mentioned a little earlier about my mom putting her knee down on her drain tubing. We tried to make sure that we created a way for that drain tubing to be coiled up and nice and tucked away so it doesn't get ripped or tugged during everyday activities, when patients are walking through their house and their dog might jump up on them and they might accidentally pull it, or if they are walking through their house and it gets hooked on their door, their door handle. I know that that happens too, so we did that. And then actually, whenever the drains are removed, you can actually take that pocket off, so the bra transitions into a sports bra that you can wear months to years post-op. So it's not your you know, couple of week throwaway bra. This is something that can be used months to years post-surgery or throughout additional surgeries you may have.
Speaker 1:So when people are showering, how does that work?
Speaker 2:Okay, I mean it depends on where they're at post-op. So the first couple of weeks most likely you're not going to be fully submerged. You can't be fully submerged or really in the shower. It's more so a birdbath, I would say. So you can definitely adjust the bra to get to those areas if you don't take it off completely. But what you would typically do is if you're getting in the shower you would take the bra off and put it back on after that as well.
Speaker 1:So I mean it's not used in the shower itself, but you can use it for about everything else. Where do the drains go when you actually are submerging and you're still, maybe, draining?
Speaker 2:A lot of the times the drains themselves would not be totally submerged in the water, but you would keep them kind of nice and tucked away somewhere. I know a lot of times people wear like a bag around their neck and they'll put them in a bag or something like that for a short amount of time, but then for most of the time these days patients are wearing that bag around their neck the entire time because they don't have any other options.
Speaker 1:Right, right, yeah, okay, such a cool bra. So your company is called Three Strands? Yes, where did that come from?
Speaker 2:The first task that we had to come up with for Wake Forest was come up with a name for your company. Come up with a name for your business. I remember really struggling with that the first couple of weeks after just getting started with school and I ended up going home that weekend to get my mom and dad's help because I had no idea. I went on name generators on Google, tried for days to find something I recommend not doing, that it was awful and it did not work and I ended up was just laying in my living room trying to think of something that just really represented what these patients go through, regardless if it's a cosmetic or breast cancer related. All of these women are going through something difficult and they have so much strength and power and resilience.
Speaker 2:And I remember looking up at a sign that my mom and I had bought from Hobby Lobby, which was a cord of three strands. It's not easily broken and that's. We got that for my mom, my dad and I because it's just us and our family and we're very tight knit. And I remember looking up and thinking that's it. Three strands is exactly what I want to call this company. And then the recovery wear came later strands is exactly what I want to call this company. And then the recovery wear came later. It meant a lot to me to have a name that truly embodied what these patients were, who they are, and we keep that at the forefront of everything that we do. Every time we're creating or iterating or listening to a patient's story, they are who we think about every day and you've trademarked that and everything and you're waiting for it to be registered.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, I learned a lot about trademarking everything and you're waiting for it to be registered. Yes, yeah, I learned a lot about trademarking. Mine is still waiting for the R. Yes, my test those breaths.
Speaker 2:We are officially receiving our first patent this week, and we filed a couple more on top of that and as a bootstrap company that has kind of raised all of our funds through pitch competitions and grants across the country, it is not an easy task to do. Everything is so expensive, but we've been so lucky in North Carolina especially. We've had so much support from so many entrepreneurial groups here that it just blows my mind how blessed we are to be here in a state that cares so much about entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1:I have some friends that I think they just moved to North Carolina. Let me check here. Yep, they just moved to Clayton, north Carolina, oh yeah, and they said they love it and they moved there because their daughter moved there. Okay, so they've been sending all kinds of pictures and it looks beautiful. I'm going to ask you a couple of questions. Number one where are your bras now? What hospitals or who carries them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we officially launched in April of this year after, you know, many, many years of iterating, creating the product, but we worked really closely again. Like I mentioned, we're in Charlotte, Winston-Salem area, so I was surrounded by a lot of great hospitals, like Wake Forest Baptist, which is now Atrium Health, which is kind of all across the Southeast. So that's a pretty big hospital enterprise. So we are now working with Atrium Health across the Southeast, which is really exciting for us. We work primarily with oncology and with plastic surgery as well. Our big goal of ours for this year was to branch into all of North Carolina and then to continue to expand outside.
Speaker 2:We've been really lucky because not only have we been able to expand in North Carolina and all across the Southeast, but we also have some of your top cancer institutes in the country that are also very interested in our product as well. So we're currently piloting with Moffitt Cancer Center. We just found out that we're going to be working with Cleveland Clinic as well, which is very exciting. We're piloting with Stanford as well. So some of those big guys is where we knew that we could start to gain credibility really fast and to really prove out the concept of we need to have better post-surgical bras, especially during those first zero to eight weeks for these patients. And if we can get that into some of the top cancer institutes in the country to see the impact that it's making on patients and their recovery, just in those few short weeks it can make all the difference in the world. And trying to get this brought across the country and achieve our goal of making this product the standard of care for every breast surgical patient across the country.
Speaker 1:I love it. I was just going to ask you to use my platform to pitch your you know like what's your ask, and that is that you would like other hospitals and surgeons and oncological surgeons to be able to look at your product, because this really is something that we need. I completely agree. If I would have seen that bra. I went to Center for Restorative Breast Surgery. I bought three of these bras and I love them, and I think that an addition with the features that you have on that bra would have been incredibly helpful. Instead of wearing the belt and now I will say, when I woke up from my surgeries, I had this beautiful black lace, sexy bra on, but that was just after surgery and then I started wearing the other ones. But I really do really think that hospitals and surgeons should be able to take a look at your resilience bra. Do you have any testimonials that you want to share?
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, absolutely, and I'm happy to provide you the full testimonial after this. But there's a couple that have really stuck out to me and you know one of them was from a patient that had a chance to wear her hospital bra for a little bit and then transition into our bra, and I remember the hospital bra that they had put her in. She said my drains dangled so badly from this bra that it caused so much pain, so much discomfort I couldn't sleep at night. She said I had to take so much more pain medicine because I just was so uncomfortable. And she said the next day I ended up transitioning into the resilience bra and she said it just made the world of difference. She said I didn't have to take as much pain medicine. She said I could sleep again and it just made all the difference in my pain and discomfort, helping relieve some of that, especially during those first week to two weeks post-op.
Speaker 2:In addition to that one that really stuck out to me and we got it maybe a week or two ago a patient had said I was looking for a bra. I'd spent so much money and time trying to find a camisole or a bra that could help me post-op she said I couldn't sleep. I or a bra that could help me. Post-op she said I couldn't sleep, I was irritable, I started to get depressed, I had anxiety and she said I got your bra, I got the resilience bra and I put it on and I was so much nicer to my family, she said. I think they really appreciated that, she said, but my depression and anxiety just came down tremendously. She said it improved my quality of life and when I set out to design this bra, I knew that it could help patients. Post-op.
Speaker 2:I knew that it could help make a difference in their recovery and just getting back to normalcy, but I didn't know. It could help reduce anxiety and depression. And when I hear that, the fact that we can do something like that, that's very powerful, leah, very, very powerful.
Speaker 1:I know I'm getting tears too. People have a difficult time understanding the emotions that go along with a breast cancer diagnosis and you know, I know any cancer but we talk breast cancer because it's so personal. Yeah, that is super powerful. I personally probably would have gotten that same result if I would have had that bra, because it is very difficult and you don't feel pretty, you don't feel sexy, you just feel like a very different person.
Speaker 1:What we go through when we find out that we have to have a mastectomy is insanely painful, and so choosing the right surgeon who is incredibly skilled, fellowship trained surgeon who is incredibly skilled, fellowship trained, can do the surgeries that you want to have is number one. Number two being able to fit into clothes and have the garments that we need to be able to move forward is so essential. So I'm telling everyone out there who is listening to this podcast, including you surgeons out there hospitals please take a look at the Three Strands website. In the show notes, I will have not only how to get a hold of Leah via phone and email, but also she is on LinkedIn. She has a website, we have her Facebook, and do you have an Instagram as well?
Speaker 2:We do it's 3strandscourt at 3strandscourt, Yep.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Okay, I will make sure that that is on there as well. I'm just so happy and this is really interesting that you reached out to me when you did, because about a month and a half ago I had someone who reached out to me to get some support. A lot of people will connect them to me because they know that I had breast cancer. They know I have this podcast and she was asking me about bras before she went into her surgery and all I could tell her was these bras. Now I have another bra and people can buy them right off of the website website or they can hopefully see them in the hospital that they'll be in.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well. You know and I think it's so important and a lot of people don't know that they can go get fitted for a postoperative bra even before their surgery happens. If you have a diagnosis and your written prescription from your physician, you can go into a local mastectomy boutique or you can buy a bra online and try to get reimbursement. Our product is seen in a lot of mastectomy boutiques across the Southeast and we're slowly expanding across to the Western part of the world as well. But we encourage patients go out, get your bras fitted before surgery so you can get reimbursed through insurance. You can bring it with you the day of surgery or take it home with you to wear a week to two weeks later. So there's so many opportunities for you to get fitted for your bra and to really help you take control of the situation.
Speaker 2:I know a lot of the times patients they might not have a chance to fully understand what surgery is going to look like and what it's going to look like when I wake up on the operating table and what kind of product am I going to be in. This gives you a way to kind of take control of that. Go find something that works well for you, that you know and you can expect to wake up in and bring that with you to surgery and know that it's going to help you throughout anything that you may tackle throughout those next couple of weeks. A lot of the times in the industry that I'm in, the companies out here have just kind of failed to innovate post-operative bras, and a lot of the times because it has to do with money. It has to do with they don't want to spend a lot of money for a product that's used for such a short amount of time.
Speaker 2:But if you think about it, this is the most critical point in healing for patients, and if you can provide them with a product that is anticipating the needs that they might not know that they need right after surgery and helps give them back that confidence, that support, that comfort to help get them back to that normalcy a little more quickly, you know it can make all the difference in a patient's recovery, and so that's what we've set out to do with our product.
Speaker 2:And it really shows when a hospital or a mastectomy boutique or a plastic surgeon practice they come out and seek our product. It only shows me how much they care about their patients, how much they want their patients to be in the very, very best thing, and we always try to support from a patient and physician side. We want this to be the bra for every patient across the world, and we want to do that in partnership with so many people across the country and just so grateful for the work that they do too, because it matters so much and it changes people's lives so much. So thank you to everyone out there that's supporting breast cancer patients, especially you, jamie. It's amazing to hear your story and to be here to share ours.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you very much. I really like that idea of being able to take control over something before it's happening. It's kind of like when we lose our hair, some people like to take control over that loss of hair by cutting it or shaving it or whatever, and going and getting a wig or whatever it looks like, and it's the same thing with a bra like that. I just think that that is so profoundly powerful, leah, and I appreciate your being here. I would love to be able to put your information on my website, testthosebreastsorg.
Speaker 1:I am a nonprofit and I'm always looking for donations from other, whether they be surgeons or whoever, because I personally don't take money from breast cancer patients. What my main mission is to be able to do is raise money enough where breast cancer patients can apply, and I can be able to award them a bag of money, if you will, to pay for things like surgery or surgical bra, whatever they need, maybe a wig or whatever. So this can be a great partnership where I have you on my resources page and people can see what you have available, and then, once I start getting more donations, I'll be able to do that. So we just all work synergistically together and I just love that. So thank you for being part of the breast cancer community and I love your story behind it and I hope your mom's doing great and all that. So with that, do you have anything that you'd like to say before we wrap up?
Speaker 2:I just want to say thank you for everything that you do. I mean, being able to give back to the breast cancer community, I know, for my family is so, so personal and we're so grateful to be able to do that. I kind of pinch myself every day that I get to do what I do and things are far from easy. I'm sure you know that if you have your own business it is so hard. But when I think about the testimonials that we get the patients we get to impact on a daily basis and I get to do something that I love, which I always loved working with hospitals and kind of in that hospital setting and I still get to do that to this day and I just feel absolutely blessed to be able to do what we do and impact as many people as we can. So I look forward to a long partnership with you so that we can continue doing that together.
Speaker 1:I love it and your love shines through, for sure. Well, thank you very much, leah, and to my audience, thank you for joining once again on this episode of Test those Breasts and, as always, please go to your favorite platform that you listen to and rate and review this podcast. It really helps. And if you are so inclined to donate to Test those Breasts, there is a donation button on my testthosebreastsorg website, and I just would thank you and hope everybody is having a great day and we will see you on the next episode of Test those Breasts. Bye for now, friends.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Test those Breasts. I hope you got some great much needed information that will help you with your journey. As always, I am open to guests to add value to my show, and I'm also open to being a guest on other podcasts where I can add value, so please reach out if you'd like to collaborate. My contact information is in the show notes and, as a reminder, rating, reviewing and sharing this podcast will truly help build a bigger audience all over the world. I thank you for your efforts. I look forward to sharing my next episode of Test those Breasts. Thank you.
