Pocono News Section

Specialty Store Opens to Help Cancer Patients

Specialty Store Opens to Help Cancer Patients - Monday, March 10, 2008 at 4:00PM EST

Reported by: Laurie Monteforte
Monday, Mar 10, 2008 @04:00pm EST
EAST STROUDSBURG, MONROE COUNTY- When doctors told Lynn Harrison she had breast cancer last July, she stayed positive. She kept that attitude throughout chemotherapy, a lumpectomy, and a double mastectomy. Then she want bra shopping.

"I started to cry. It was the only thing that made me cry through the entire ordeal," said Harrison.

She couldn't find a bra that fit and she wasn't alone. There was no store in the Poconos that sold undergarments made for breast cancer patients and survivors - no store nearby that sold special lotions for patient's sensitive skin. So Lynn opened her own shop. The Pink Ribbon Boutique on Crystal Street in East Stroudsburg.

"I though let me try and take care of somebody, let me try and make it better for the next person that gets diagnosed," she said.

Lynn said mastectomy patients often have to deal with an unwelcome accessory. She explained, "When you have a mastectomy, you have drains put in to drain the fluids out of your body and at the end of the drain there's a bulb - and where to put it?"

She made sure her shop sold shirts that solve the problem.

"It's just to bring you back to where you were - you know - almost where you have a little self confidence and you don't feel maybe people are staring at you," Lynn said.

Even if you're not a breast cancer patient or survivor, you still might want to stop into the boutique. They have lotions, hats, scarves and shirts that anyone could enjoy.

"You don't have to be like this to have a hat or a scarf of whatever," laughed Lynn.

The shop also has a wig lending library for patients who can't afford a wig. All they have to pay is a $25 cleaning fee when they return it. That's much less than the several hundred dollars it normally costs to buy a wig.