Sunday, January 16, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

My Hope Chest created to assist breast cancer survivors

Nonprofit working to help women with surgical breast reconstruction

My Hope Chest aims to help survivors of breast cancer with surgical breast reconstruction.

So far, the new Las Vegas organization has a worthy goal, clever name, legal nonprofit status, board of directors and a medical adviser. It is working on collecting the funds to carry out its goal.

The organization's hope is to do the first reconstruction surgery by April, says its founder, Alisa Savoretti. "We've been putting the infrastructure together," she explains. "We have to work on the back end to recruit the doctors to make sure the paperwork is done, to develop the criteria for the women selected."

Savoretti is a breast cancer survivor and former "La Cage" dancer. She came up with the concept for My Hope Chest after her own health experience.

She was diagnosed with cancer in Florida in 2002, at a point when she had left the show, was not employed and had no health insurance. She found programs in Florida to help her with the costs of biopsies, mastectomy and chemotherapy. But no program existed to help her finance the cost of breast reconstruction.

So, she recalls, she went "two years, two months and 22 days with one breast." During that span, she returned to Las Vegas and resumed dancing at "La Cage." Through skillful costuming, her mastectomy was never apparent to the audience.

But thanks to the terms of the job's group insurance, she was able to finance the surgery. In the course of the three-surgery process, she left "La Cage" and now runs an online business.

My Hope Chest's medical director is Dr. William Zamboni, chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. Savoretti said Zamboni did her reconstruction work.

In July, My Hope Chest did a kickoff event at Hooters restaurant. The restaurant has gained a reputation for attractive, skantily clad waitresses. Savoretti said the venue was suited to the occasion: "We're trying to keep this a lighthearted nonprofit. We're not doing research. We're putting women back together. It's celebrating life."

There is a need for reconstructive surgery, which is sometimes considered cosmetic, according to Savoretti. "I sat in a support group (for breast cancer survivors) and one woman said her nipple was falling off" because a lumpectomy surgery had removed so much breast tissue.

Savoretti says My Hope Chest is seeking donations and long-term support. "Now basically we need to buckle down here and get some corporate sponsors. I'd like to get Victoria's Secret or a bra company. Who better than a bra company to support a boob company?" she says, only half-joking.

Aside from helping arrange reconstruction surgery, My Hope Chest also intends to do educational outreach to breast cancer patients before surgery. "If you're premenopausal, you may not be able to have children as a result of the chemotherapy," she says, to cite one scenario that she didn't learn about until shortly before her chemo. If she had learned sooner, theoretically she could have arranged to cryo-preserve some of her eggs for potential pregnancy after treatment.

Jackie Brown, director of the Las Vegas affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, said the foundation does refer to My Hope Chest those callers with questions about breast reconstruction.

My Hope Chest is filing letters from women who want to be considered for the surgery. For information, call 579-0799.