HUNTSVILLE – As Breast Cancer Awareness Month winds down, Huntsville Hospital for Women & Children Breast Center has launched a more calming experience to help ease patients’ stress and fear.
Gone are the hospital gowns for the 65,000-plus women who depend on the center for breast cancer diagnostic screenings each year.
In their place are warm, comforting robes.
And, that’s not all. There is a remodeled sub-waiting area with soft music and soothing scents.
This is all aimed at reducing anxiety and providing comfort for these patients through a calmer, more spa-like environment.
A donation from Judy and Chuck Stokes to Huntsville Hospital Foundation was the catalyst for the project. The Huntsville couple honored Judy’s mom, Mary Byer Liswood, a breast cancer survivor.
“My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 58, and underwent a radical mastectomy,” Judy said. “Her strength, faith, and optimism carried her through, and she lived her life fully, completely, positively, and with a most caring heart, until the age of 105. In honor of my Momma, I wanted to make the Breast Center a hopeful place for all who walk through the doors.”
Judy had the idea for the unit enhancements during her annual mammogram.
“I came home and shared my experience with Chuck,” she said. “The staff, the equipment, everything was just wonderful.”
But, Judy had some ideas for “a couple of things that I thought maybe we could see tweaked.”
“They handed me two hospital gowns – one to open to the front and one to the back,” Judy said. “Well, I thought … OK, I am not sick. Why am I in a hospital gown?
“Chuck and I discussed how we could give back and help make it a more patient-centered, anxiety- and stress-reducing experience. We immediately called Huntsville Hospital Foundation, and their team helped bring this dream into reality.”
Now, thanks to the Stokes’ donation, patients will be wrapped in a warm robe instead of cold, awkward hospital gowns while they await their mammogram and results at the HHW&C Breast Center, which performs more mammograms than any other mammography site in the state.
“The Stokes’ passion and generosity will help countless women during a time that fills so many with immense anxiety and fear,” said Sarah Savage-Jones, president of Huntsville Hospital Foundation. “Every year, you worry until you get that ‘all clear’. Thanks to Judy and Chuck’s donation and vision, our Breast Center can provide a feeling of wellness and peace to the patients we serve from across North Alabama.
“This combines with our state-of-the-art equipment to truly improve patient lives.”
Huntsville-based CFD Research also partnered with Huntsville Hospital Foundation on the project. The company’s donations to the Liz Hurley Breast Cancer Fund funded the robe warmer machine, ensuring every robe is warm when it is handed to patients.
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