Kathleen Ruth saw her sister-in-law’s friend, Carol, receive an electric reclining chair after undergoing a mastectomy following treatment for breast cancer. After recovering from the procedure and no longer needing the chair, Carol passed it along to another woman in the St. Louis area who had also undergone a mastectomy. Then that person gifted it to someone else after she was finished with it. That’s how The Healing Chair initiative began.
This type of recliner ensures these women don't have to use muscles that hurt post surgery to stand up. There are now 25 chairs circulating in St. Louis, helping women retain a little more comfort through tough times.
Kathleen brought The Healing Chair to the Metroplex last July, and since it started, 13 clients in North Texas have benefited from a similar chair — including Southlake’s first chair recipient, Mimi Tran. The organization now has seven chairs in use, and Kathleen says there are plans to buy more.
“It’s so simple, but it means so much to people who are getting it,” Kathleen says.
Along with Pattie Stebbins, Kathleen delivers the chairs to the people who need them, and after setting up the chair, the client usually keeps the chair for six to eight weeks — longer if they need it again following reconstruction surgery.
Clients also get a couple of pillows, a blanket monogrammed with The Healing Chair’s logo and a journal which travels with a chair so they can read the entries of past clients and write their own.
“That’s why we’re doing it,” Kathleen says. “To make their lives a little easier for what they’re going through.”