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Victoria’s Secret Considering Suggested Breast Cancer Survivor Bras

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We previously told you about the campaign launched by Allana Maiden asking Victoria’s Secret to make “survivor bras” to “help breast cancer survivors feel beautiful.” Maiden is close to the concerns of those with breast cancer, her mother Debbie Barrett is 21 years cancer free, and hoped a Change.org petition would help urge the company to participate. Yesterday, Allana and her mother delivered the petition to the company’s office in New York City and got really positive responses. 

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The petition now sits at just over 120,000 signatures but had around 118,000 when the women turned up at the office with it printed and place in a trademark Victoria’s Secret pink shopping bag. It said in part:

I’m so inspired by her strength and hope, and after everything she went through, it doesn’t seem fair that shopping for bras is such a discouraging, time consuming and frustrating ordeal. Many women who undergo mastectomy surgery because of breast cancer suffer from body image issues.

There are so many women out there, like my mom, who have survived breast cancer but are left feeling altered and uncomfortable because of undergoing chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. I think they deserve to feel beautiful and Victoria’s Secret is the perfect company to help make that happen with a line of “Survivor” mastectomy bras.

Tammy Roberts Myers, vice president of external communications for Limited Brands (VS’s parent company), met with the women. ABC News writes she “offered to fly the pair to the Columbus, Ohio, headquarters for more discussions and a tour of the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, a recipient of donations from Victoria’s Secret.”

Maiden said she was “blown away” by the meeting. “They actually want to send us out there and are taking this seriously. I didn’t know what to expect meeting someone so high in the company. I thought it would just be a pat on the back — ‘Good job, we can’t do it.’ It was amazing. I do think that [Victoria’s Secret] is interested in figuring out how to do this.” While Barrett had this to say, “It’s been wonderful to see all this support and to have the chance to talk to Victoria’s Secret representatives about how much this amazing decision would mean to survivors of breast cancer.”

A Victoria’s Secret statement said, “Ultimately, we are working towards celebrating the day when breast cancer is a thing of the past. In the meantime, we are listening and learning to understand if there are additional ways for our company to continue to extend its support.”

While we wait and see if Victoria’s Secret develops a specific product, Nordstrom department store reached out to ABC to let Barrett know they customize mastectomy bras and would cover the cost of a few for her. “We can do it right in-store and it makes it so customers can still enjoy the lingerie they’ve always loved even after a mastectomy,” wrote Nordstrom spokesperson Kelly Skahan.

(via ABC News)

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Author
Jill Pantozzi
Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."

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