Mid-South woman stitches together

a breast cancer community one

quilt at a time
Corinne S Kennedy
Memphis Commercial Appeal
View Comments

Cheryl Garth made a quilt for the first time in 2013 when her younger sister
was diagnosed with breast cancer. As a former hospice nurse, she knew what
cancer looked like, the long stretches in chilly hospital and clinic rooms it
entailed.

She had never made a quilt, but she had grown up watching her grandmother
make them and felt she had to do something for her sister. So she looked for
tutorials on YouTube and got started.
Almost 10 years later, Garth, who lives in Eads, has lost track of how many
quilts she’s made for people newly diagnosed with breast cancer in the Mid-
South. Some have been relatives, co-workers, or friends, and others complete
strangers who approach her on Facebook after hearing about her from a quilt
recipient.

Healthcare news:The flu is here, and it's sending more Memphians than
usual to the ER

Cancer research:St. Jude, Broad Institute, Dana-Farber to invest $60

million in cancer research

All of them are bound by the community Garth has lovingly stitched together
for years, tying survivors, friends, family, and those who have succumbed to
one of the most common forms of cancer for women in the U.S.

“There are a lot of times… there's no words that can change how somebody
feels. There's nothing you can say that's going to help them,” Garth said. “But
there's just something about a hug… It's kind of like a hug. You know, you can
give them a quilt that says that somebody is thinking of you, somebody
thought enough for you to do this and they want you to feel that warmth of a
hug.”

She picks materials that will be the softest and warmest for cold hospital
rooms. One purple and gold quilt went to a devoted LSU fan going through
chemotherapy and Chevron prints have proved popular. Sometimes Garth
simply gets on Pinterest and sees what catches her eye.
The mission became even more personal when Garth herself was diagnosed
with breast cancer in 2017 after a routine mammogram. She knew from her
experience as a hospice nurse that illness could strike anyone with no
explanation. But she was still shocked.

“It was so scary. And I was a very health-conscious person and watched what I
ate, every bite of food that went in my mouth. I exercised, and I still got cancer
and that was just so hard for me because I felt like I was doing everything I
needed to do to be healthy,” she said.

What to look for

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 264,121 new
cases of breast cancer were reported among women in 2019, the most recent
data available. It is by far the most common newly diagnosed type of cancer
for American women, with about 130 cases per 100,000 individuals. The next
closest was lung cancer, with 48 cases per 100,000.
In Tennessee that year, there were 5,376 new cases reported, or about 121 per
100,000 women living in Tennessee.

Dr. Matthew Ballo, medical director of radiation oncology at Saint Francis-

Memphis, said all people have some risk of breast cancer with higher risk
associated with older age, family history of breast cancer, exposure to
radiation, lifestyle choices like lack of exercise and gender, with women being
at higher risk than men.

Ballo said the most obvious signs of breast cancer are a lump in the breast or a
change in how it looks, such as it becoming larger, changing shape or
becoming dimpled. He also said to look for reddening of the skin, nipple
discharge and lumps under the arm.
“The most important thing we can all do to detect breast cancer early is to see
our primary care doctor yearly and follow the well-established screening
guidelines for breast cancer,” Ballo said. “Your primary care doctor is the best
person to assess your risk of breast cancer by asking you questions about risk
factors and things you may have noticed about your breasts.”

Collierville resident Karen Fitzgerald was diagnosed with breast cancer for the
first time in 2012 after pain prompted her to get a mammogram. Then in
2018, she was diagnosed with breast cancer again after she felt a lump during
a self-exam and went to see her doctor. Fitzgerald, who also lives with multiple
sclerosis, thought the second cancer was going to be the end for her.

“When you hear the word cancer, my best descriptive is you go into a fog,” she
said. “It's OK to cry. It's OK to ask questions, but then you just got to face it
and go through it.”

'It was so comforting'

Fitzgerald and Garth started to become friends in 2017 after Garth’s diagnosis.
The two were working together at Saint Francis at the time and Garth,
knowing Fitzgerald was a survivor, asked her for advice.

After Fitzgerald’s second diagnosis a year later, Garth presented her with a
quilt.

“I broke down in tears because she thought so much of me,” Fitzgerald said. “I
took my quilt everywhere I went for my procedures, and it lay on my hospital
bed. It went with me to my doctor's office visits… my second battle with cancer
I ended up having 11 procedures inside of a year ― whether they were
inpatient or outpatient ― and people noticed me or would talk to me because I
always had my quilt. And I'm telling you, it was so comforting.”

Over the course of Fitzgerald’s second cancer journey, the two became close
friends. Both women, now cancer-free, have also found special connections
with other people who have experienced cancer.
They also urged people to perform self-exams and not to skip routine
mammograms.

“Going through this journey, you know, it changes you, it changes your
perspective. It makes you look at life differently,” Fitzgerald said. “Whether it's
with work, your friendships, your family… you definitely have a different look
on life.

Garth still works full-time, making quilts in the evenings and on weekends.
She hopes that one day she’ll have the time to make a quilt for everyone that
needs them.

“As I'm quilting for that person or making that quilt I think about them, I pray
for them. You know, you've heard the phrase is stitched in prayer or stitched
in love and you know, quilting is kind of like that,” she said. “That quilt is
unique to that to that one person. There's no other blanket like that.”

Corinne S Kennedy covers economic development and healthcare for The

Commercial Appeal. She can be reached via email at
Corinne.Kennedy@CommercialAppeal.com