On April 1, 2008 we were diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer. It was the worst April fools joke that could ever be played on anyone. My wife does not have a history of breast cancer in her family and she was only 45 years old when diagnosed! The only reason that the cancer was discovered was due to my wife having a mammogram! Thank God for mammograms!!

We had to wait until May 22 for surgery and my wife had a double mastectomy at that point. During the surgery, they checked her lymph nodes and again, Thank God the test came back negative and there was no sign of the cancer in her nodes. That was the longest month and a half we ever had to endure. They won’t check for the nodes until surgery and therefore we did not know the extent of the disease until the surgery.

After my wife recovered from her surgery, we went through three months of chemo and as my wife lost her hair, I shaved mine. We were the happiest bald couple in the world knowing that we were going to beat this ugly disease.

The last surgery was for reconstruction and that took place in November and everything went very well. She is now on a drug called arimidex and she will be on that for the next five years!

During this insane time, we decided that we wanted to help other people who are affected by this ugly disease and we started looking at ways to do that and finally came up with the Pink Hands of Hope organization.

During an intense and amazing four week period we filed the paperwork with the IRS to become a 501 c 3 non-profit organization along with filing corporation paperwork with the state of Pa. We also had an amazing series of events (God things) that allowed us to set up our store complete with inventory! We are selling gently used, name brand clothing for a fraction of the price of new in order to fund our organization.

The Pink Hands of Hope’s main mission is to help women and their families who are battling breast cancer in central Pennsylvania. Our goal is to provide money to offset medical bills, clothing, non-perishable food and new toys to those who are in need. We also are going to assist them with the mental issues that come along with this ugly disease as we have been and are still going through it. We can offer compassion, empathy and support to those who find their worlds turned upside down with the diagnosis of breast cancer.

Please come out and support our cause and in doing so, you might be helping one of your neighbors!!

Laurie and Brian Gaughan
Co-Founders