The Pink Pages - Keeping Abreast

We check in with a local group helping women with breast reconstruction surgery.

A breast cancer survivor herself, Jackie Stephen continues to provide hope for people whose lives are affected by cancer.

Following her own mastectomy and reconstruction in 2007, Stephen founded Keeping Abreast with her friends and the Health Sciences Centre Foundation. The charity works with a team of surgeons to provide mastectomies and immediate breast reconstructions as a unified surgery. Before the technique was brought to Manitoba, women were waiting three to five years after their mastectomies for reconstructive surgery. Although breast reconstruction can be performed anytime after a mastectomy, most reconstructive options offer the best results when they are done at the same time as the initial surgery.

Through its fundraising, Keeping Abreast has been able to fund research and education as well as provide cutting-edge equipment for the HSC Breast Reconstruction Program’s team of surgeons. “Since March of 2007, we have raised over $542,000,” says Stephen, who is also director of operations at FortWhyte Alive. 

Keeping Abreast recently purchased a laser used for scar repair and hair removal, and has also bought equipment to perform a new procedure. The dermabrader is a state-of-the-art re-cell product that helps reconstruct the nipple during surgery.

“With mastectomies and reconstructive surgeries, there is a step in the surgery that reconstructs the nipple,” says Stephen. “The dermabrader takes pigment from other parts of your body and forms the areola.” The previous method used involved tattooing, which fails to replicate the exact colour of the woman’s areola. “By using the woman’s own pigment, it’s a perfect match,” she says. “This helps the surgeons restore the women back to their former selves as much as they can.”

Thanks to the money it has raised throughout the year, Keeping Abreast has also funded traveling fellowships for doctors, surgeons and nursing staff to further their educations in the field. It has already sent nurses to a convention to learn specifically about breast reconstructive surgery, and has flown doctors to meet with other medical professionals in order to bring more knowledge back to Winnipeg.

Keeping Abreast is also helping fund the development of the second phase of the Breast Reconstruction Program’s website, which is used by both pre- and post-op breast cancer patients. “It provides research for patients, information on what they can expect, as well as post-op care,” says Stephen. Additionally, the organization is sprucing up the reconstructive patient area to make it as comfortable as possible. “We’re going to be making it a little more pleasant for the breast cancer patients,” she says.

The charity already has plans in place for several events during the upcoming year. In October, it is promoting Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a number of businesses and organizations to raise awareness of the organization and breast cancer in general. Keeping Abreast also holds its flagship event every May—the 2010 event raised $165,000 for research and education. 

For more information about Keeping Abreast or how to donate, visit www.keepingabreast.org.