Essentia Health manager seeks volunteers to craft prostheses for breast cancer survivors

By Connie Wirta

Ifyou knit or crochet, Roberta Klekotka wants to recruit you to craft comfortable prostheses for breast cancer survivors.

It only takes a few hours to make a soft breast form for women who visit Essentia Health clinics across the Northland, explains Roberta, who manages Essentia Health’s Breast Health Center in Duluth. The free prostheses, called Knitted Knockers, are given to any woman who has had a mastectomy.

An avid knitter and crocheter, Roberta has created more than 100 knockers in the last year. Now she needs help to meet demand and bring the prostheses to 20 Essentia Health clinics in northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. Her volunteer project has gained the backing of the Essentia Health Foundation, which is providing money to buy the special yarn for volunteers.

Knitted Knockers are lightweight and breathable compared to silicon prostheses that many women find heavy and sweaty in bras. “Some women say the weight and rubbing of a silicon prosthesis is a constant reminder of their cancer,” Roberta says.

Roberta was looking for a new volunteer opportunity when she happened upon Knitted Knockers on the internet. The national nonprofit offers patterns to crafters who create breast prostheses that they then send to the organization to distribute to women who have had mastectomies.

A breast cancer survivor herself, Roberta decided to jump in. Following a downloaded pattern, she began crocheting knockers in the summer of 2017. She asked friends on her dragon boat team, the Survivor Sistership, to try out her early samples and give her feedback. “They loved them,” she recalls, explaining the women compete in the annual races that raise money for breast cancer patients and services.

When Roberta shared Knitted Knockers with nurses in Essentia’s Breast Health Center and patient navigators in the Essentia Health Cancer Center, they were delighted. So were their patients.

Olivia Lenz, a registered nurse in the Breast Health Center, has shared knockers with women headed into surgery and those who are many years past surgery. “Some of my patients express concern about how they will look after their mastectomy and it is during this intimate moment that I can introduce them to the Knitted Knockers,” she says. “One patient picked out a size C and was encouraged to be heading into surgery with a plan for what was to come.”

Olivia says another patient was struggling with irritation caused by a prosthesis rubbing against her mastectomy scar. “She was so excited to try a Knitted Knocker that she put it in her bra right away,” Olivia recalls. “She was happy that it was lightweight and not hot. She was even happier that her mastectomy scar would no longer be irritated. She looked amazing and wore a beautiful smile to boot.” D

Connie Wirta is an editor for Essentia Health marketing. She wrote this for The Woman Today.

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Knit a knocker

You can help a breast cancer survivor by knitting or crocheting a prosthesis.

A nonprofit organization called Knitted Knockers has developed patterns for all cup sizes and offers free patterns on its website, KnittedKnockers.org. It also has a list of approved yarns suitable for prostheses that rub against skin that’s often very tender after breast cancer treatments.

Roberta Klekotka, diagnostic imaging manager at the Essentia Health-Duluth Clinic, is organizing a volunteer effort to place handmade knockers in Essentia Health clinics across northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. To join her crew and get a free skein of yarn, email rklekotka@yahoo.com or call (218) 213-2835. She’ll give you instructions on how to return your finished knockers so they can be stuffed and shared with local breast cancer survivors.

Donate to the Breast Cancer and Health Fund

You can donate money to buy yarn for volunteer knitters and crocheters through the Essentia Health Foundation.

Donate online at EssentiaHealth.org or you can write a check to the Essentia Health Foundation and write Knitted Knockers in the note area. Mail your check to: Essentia Health Foundation, 400 E. Third St, Duluth, MN 55805 D

For more information, call Foundation Associate Deb Ellingsen at (218) 786-1062 or email Debra.Ellingsen@ EssentiaHealth.org.