NEW YORK — Peg Feodoroff is out to make cancer treatment a little easier for the patient.
Feodoroff and her two sisters, Claire Goodhue and Patty O’Brien, just launched the Original Healing Threads, a Bridgewater, Mass.-based line of fashionable yet functionable hospital clothing for women going through cancer treatment. Sold online at spirited-sisters.com, the collection includes an array of hospital-appropriate gowns that look more like jackets and functional pants for patient comfort and ease for the doctor. There’s the “elegant” style, a loose-fit jacket with adjustable closures and kimono-style sleeves; the “grace,” a long gown specially made for women who prefer more coverage, and the “wrap,” a tailored garment created to emphasize the waist without discomfort.
“Studies show that when you feel like you look good, you will get better quicker,” Feodoroff said. “With the wrap, which comes with a belt to be tied around the waist, we find that women who are going through breast cancer like to show off that they have a waist. It makes them feel feminine, something many women feel they lose when they lose their breasts.”
Each garment is made of a super-soft microfiber for added comfort. The fabric is also stain-resistant, so that any drips of medicine will not remain. The clothes are equipped with soft closures and breakaway panels over the back and chest to make it easy for the doctor, but the patient will not have to have her entire body exposed. An added feature includes interior pockets for a medicine bag or valuables and slash front pockets to keep hands warm.
For Feodoroff, who worked in the interior design industry for 25 years, this line means much more than just a new business. It all began when she was diagnosed with stage three melanoma in summer 2002. Surgery was followed by aggressive sessions of radiation and chemotherapy that brought her back to the hospital every day for six weeks.
“The radiation room is freezing, and it’s so humiliating to sit in the waiting room in those traditional hospital gowns. It’s absolutely inhumane,” Feodoroff said. “And to have to do that every single day for six weeks was draining … as if the cancer itself wasn’t draining enough.”
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And then the unthinkable happened. Four months after Feodoroff’s diagnosis, her youngest sister, Goodhue, was diagnosed with stage four mestastatic colon cancer. A single mother of seven-year-old Lilly, Goodhue has been fighting the deadly disease since.
To honor her sister, Feodoroff has started the Claire Foundation, dedicated to helping single mothers maintain their style of living while fighting cancer. Feodoroff said she plans to donate at least 3 percent of her profits to the charity.
The line sells on the Web site for $75 for pants to $180 for the “elegant” jacket, and Feodoroff said she would like to expand the collection. She has an idea for a line of hats for women and men who have lost their hair during treatments. She would also like to start a children’s collection.
“I have this idea to make little girls look like princesses and boys like superheros,” she said. “If we can make them feel like they are playing dress-up, it could make the treatments seem a little more fun … if you could ever call them that.”
But for now, she said she would like the Original Healing Threads to be sold in select specialty stores and in hospital boutiques. She said that since cancer patients will need the garments as soon as possible, she has 2,200 pieces all set to ship and the line will be on retail floors in a matter of days. Everything is made in the U.S., which makes it even faster for reorders. Feodoroff said she expects to reach about $1 million in first-year sales.
“I know that this doesn’t seem like the traditional business plan,” she said. “But I am a 56-year-old woman from the Baby Boomer generation. We’ve never done things in a traditional way. Why start now?”