Boxes of hope
Helping Each Other
“I now see every
day as a gift,” says
Elizabeth, with her
family. Inset:
Elizabeth started
I'mpact One to
help other
cancer
patients.
When Elizabeth Ayers-Cluff was diagnosed with
breast cancer, she was terrified. But the experience
also gave her an incredible opportunity: the
chance to help other women fight and win . . .
“
”
Searching
for strength
C
Hope in a box
L
ery good-news checkup—at three
months, six months, then yearly—
she never forgot her plan. And
in 2015, she formed I’mpact
One Breast Cancer Foundation
(ImpactOne.Pink) to provide
emotional and financial support
for breast cancer patients.
Remembering how impossible it
was to take care of herself when
she was both physically ill and
emotionally drained, Elizabeth decided to also send women “Hope in
a Box”—everything from mastectomy bras and special camisole
tops to head wraps and wigs delivered to their homes free of charge
so they could try them on, when
they felt up to it, in private.
Elizabeth contacted the American Cancer Society and Cancer
Society of America to offer help.
When they told her about a
32-year-old patient undergoing a
double mastectomy, she packed
up a box of items, wrapped it
in beautiful paper and delivered
it to her.
“This is so wonderful! I just can’t
thank you enough!” the grateful
young woman marveled.
“You listened to me and understood immediately what I needed
to feel normal!” another woman
gushed to Elizabeth.
For Sandy, another recipient,
tears sprang into her eyes.
“This feels like Christmas morning!” she beamed when she received her Hope in a Box. Leslie,
going through breast cancer treatment in Kansas, wrote: Your help
Foods that prevent breast cancer
Opt for this oil! Women
whose diets include lots
of extra-virgin olive oil
have a 68% lower chance of
developing breast cancer,
a recent study found!
made me realize how actually
blessed I am! And for mom of
three Charlene Holbrook, Elizabeth’s kindness proved the best
medicine.
“When I was diagnosed with
breast cancer at 29, I was in
shock and so incredibly scared.
Scared my three little boys
would grow up without me.
Scared they would forget me!
And it was hard to let go of pride,
too. I did not want to accept help.
But I will be forever grateful for
the love and support of I’mpact
One and today, I remain cancerfree—and even became a mom
again. Miracles do happen!”
Today, Elizabeth and her volunteers have shipped “Hope in a
Box” to hundreds throughout
the United States and Mexico.
And sometimes, when women
call I’mpact One—even after
hours—she’ll just spend time
chatting with them about their
appointments, about their treatment protocol, about their fears
and concerns, because hearing
“You get it!” is the greatest
thanks of all.
“Every survivor needs to feel
like she isn’t alone, and I know
how powerful having hope can
be,” Elizabeth says with a smile.
“I never gave up hope I’d be a
mom, and today I have three children. Hope kept me alive to watch
them grow up. And now we’re
passing along that hope to help
other women in their journey!”
—Marti Attoun
Lower your risk of breast cancer by adding
these safeguarding foods to your diet:
Try tangy fresh sauerkraut!
It contains glucosinolates, a cancerfighting compound—and a study
found women who ate three weekly
servings of sauerkraut or cabbage
reduced breast cancer risk 72%!
Get the brightest fruits and
veggies! Red, yellow and orange
produce contain nutrients that
protect you from breast cancer!
Some of the best: peaches,
carrots, red peppers and squash.
Share your own inspiring story with us, and we’ll pay you $250 if we publish it! Read or heard a story you think belongs in Woman’s World? Send
it to us! If you’re the first to share it and we publish it, we’ll pay you $100! E-mail the story with your name and phone number to: WWFeatures@
WomansWorldMag.com. Or mail to: Scoop, Woman’s World, 270 Sylvan Ave., Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632.
54 WOMAN’S WORLD 2/27/17
We pay
$250!
Photos: BKBarnes Photography; Shutterstock.
P
ulling on her sports bra for burned her chest, Elizabeth also
her morning run, Elizabeth required 20 hyperbaric oxygen
Ayers-Cluff winced. There it treatments, followed by skin
was again: that odd tightness in grafts and breast reconstruction.
her right breast.
Although I knew about the side efIt didn’t hurt, really—it was just fects, I never realized how cancer
slightly tender. And it only hap- can break your spirit, she wrote
pened wearing her sports bra. So on her blog as her long brown hair
the Queen Creek, Arizona, mom fell out in clumps and her clothes
shook off any concern, heading out no longer fit.
before the rest of her house awoke.
Elizabeth’s doctors had given her
After multiple miscarriages and information on wigs and mastecseveral failed in vitro attempts, tomy “wear,” like bras and comElizabeth was finally blessed with pression tank tops. Yet she had no
sons Ethen, then Drake. Then, two energy to go shopping. Because
years later—by surprise!—baby every glimpse in the mirror was
Maya came along.
just another reminder: Cancer had
Still, having three children under changed her.
six, Elizabeth was busy. So at her
“Take this. It’s yours now,” a
next gynecologist appointment, friend and fellow cancer survivor
said, passing along a wig made
even though the slight discomfort remained, she almost
of real hair. Friends and
forgot to even mention
family were there nearOur
it. But the doctor
ly every day, playing
with the kids and
sent her for a mamsorrows and
mogram, then a
healthy
wounds are healed cooking
biopsy anyway—
meals when Elizawhen we touch
and the results
beth could hardly
were
shocking
manage to even
them with
and unthinkable:
pour bowls of cecompassion.
real. And suddenly,
Elizabeth had stage
BUDDHA
3B breast cancer.
it struck her: Cancer
had changed things.
But in some ways, it
was revealing how blessed
ancer? How? Elizabeth cried.
she was.
Only 37, she was hardly able to
“I know it probably sounds
wrap her mind around it. And my strange, but cancer is reminding
kids . . . they’re still babies! What if me of all the light and love in my
I die and leave them without a life,” Elizabeth told Mitch. And in
mother? “We will not let that hap- that moment, she made a decision:
pen,” her husband, Mitch, prom- Someday, she would share that
ised, holding her in his arms.
same encouragement with other
But nobody can promise that, women fighting breast cancer.
Elizabeth knew. And in the coming
months, her tears fell often as
uckily, after two long years
she endured a mastectomy, chemoof treatment, Elizabeth was
therapy and radiation.
When the radiation treatments pronounced cancer-free. With ev-