(LEX 18) — Whenever we face a life challenge, it always helps to know we're not going through it alone.
A Kentucky woman found the support she was looking for last year from a group trying to leave its mark on our state.
They say many hands make light work, so a few dozen should do. One of the newest sets belongs to Cathy Sasse.
She's with "Fillies Blankets of Hope," a group of breast cancer survivors making blankets for patients undergoing treatment.
"This is my fourth time coming to make blankets," Sasse said. "I found this group last summer. Someone approached me at a restaurant and said 'you need to check out this group.' so I did and I've been coming ever since."
"We're really family. We've become family," said Tammy Sharp, the group's founder. "If something happens to one of us, we all jump in. That's just how it's been since we got started."
It all started in 2015 with Sharp tying some folks in to help do some good.
"I asked some girls if they'd be interested and they said yes. The first time we made the blankets, we made 12 of them and we thought we were rocking and rolling," she said.
They crank out more than twelve these days, and motivation has a lot to do with it through shared experience.
"When I was first diagnosed, I went to my radiologist and they came out and they gave me a blanket," said Sharp. "I loved the blanket it was just like what we're making. It's not the blanket. It's getting the blanket. I didn't know anybody with cancer at that time."
"I was 36 with two small children," said Cindy Burton. "They said 'yes, you have breast cancer' that was back in 1995. My main thing was I thought I was going to die and my children were going to be left without a mother. Anyway, fast forward and I'm almost a 30-year survivor now."
All the women I have spoken with will tell a similar story: When they were diagnosed, what they went through, and how they overcame it.
It's a vast sewing circle of survivors, including Cathy.
"I went for my routine mammogram Valentine's Day 2023. By April, I was scheduled for surgery," she said. "I went through two surgeries back to back. Went straight into radiation treatments. I'm glad I elected to have them removed because that's when they actually found the cancer, from the surgery. Had I not had that done, it would've been another year. It would've been this year and who knows what it would've been."
Cathy has so many reasons to be thankful. Her cancer is gone, she's found a group of friends who know what she's gone through, and she joined a lot more of them during this year's Survivors Parade.
"I think it's going to be a very emotional day," she said. "Just like anything it's going to hit home when you're there."
"Back in 2008, I got the notification that I was picked to walk," said Burton. "It was an honor to be there and have all these people recognize us, and I'm going to get teary-eyed now just thinking about it because it was beautiful. Everybody was in their dresses and hats, and they were all waving for us, the breast cancer survivors."
Whether they're sitting together making blankets or standing together at Churchill Downs, these women are forever sisters who won their fight and are ready to support others while still living through it.
"I'm glad I'm able to do it. I'm glad that I'm a survivor," said Sasse.
The group's name, "Fillies Blankets of Hope," is a play on words in honor of Oaks Day when the fillies run for the lilies.
It's grown into a network of about 600 people on Facebook who connect with each other, which you can do as well if you're interested.
