Garden Clubs Donate Buddy Bags to North Oaks Medical Center to Help Breast Cancer Surgery Patients

In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October, three local garden clubs donated “Bosom Buddy Bags” to North Oaks Medical Center to be given as a resource to women following breast cancer surgery. Belle Oaks Garden Club, Ponchatoula Community Garden Club and the Ponchatoula Gardenettes sewed 140 of the fabric bags, which are designed to hold drainage bottles in place during recovery.

The original bag was designed by a breast cancer surgery patient as a practical, hands-free way to manage the drainage bottles during her recovery and complete activities of daily living like brushing her teeth, eating and dressing. In 2010, Deep South Region National Garden Club Members in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee adopted the original design and began making the bags to deliver to surgery centers in their communities to help other breast cancer surgery patients. The Deep South Region now recognizes the Bosom Buddy Bag project as an extension of the National Garden Club’s "Plant It Pink" initiative to honor breast cancer.

Garden Club members and North Oaks Surgical Services staff members who participated in the Oct. 19 presentation include: (front row, from left) Patricia Sweeney, Vicky Fannaly, Peggy Avery, Rachel Fitzgerald, Janice Hickey, April McIntyre, Loren Hux, Rosalind Darsam, Lynda Byrd, (second row, from left) Cricket Ayala, Mona Middlebrook, Margaret Bailey, Diane Dufour, Kathy Bedenbaugh and Phyllis Berner.