Colts Feature Brave Former Cheerleader
From WISHTV.com
When the Colts take the field Sunday, Oct. 6 for Game 5, some players will don pink cleats and jerseys as part of the NFL’s “A Crucial Catch” campaign, in partnership with the American Cancer Society.
The league-wide campaign highlights the importance of annual cancer screenings, with games during the month of October focusing specifically on Breast Cancer Awareness.
Even the game ticket to Sunday’s home game against the Seattle Seahawks features a breast cancer survivor with special ties to the Colts. Andrea Farrell was a former Colts cheerleader from 2002 to 2004. She was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer in January 2012, three months after the birth of her son, Luke.
“Your body is changing so much after you have a child,” Farrell says. “So, one day I happened to feel a lump in my breast and I called my doctor. I went in for tests and they confirmed my fears – I had Stage II breast cancer.”
Farrell was 36 at the time of her diagnosis and was physically fit and active.
“I felt like I was watching a movie – like it was someone else’s life on the screen,” she said. “I thought this couldn’t happen to me because I was young, healthy, I exercised and ate well.”
Farrell underwent a series of tests and found she had the BRCA-1 gene, a hereditary link to cancer. Her tests came back triple negative, indicating the lump in her breast was not driven by hormones, rather it’s “just something that’s part of my makeup,” Farrell says.
Farrell’s doctor determined the best course of action was for Farrell to undergo four months of chemotherapy, which resulted in a complete response. She had a double mastectomy in August 2012 and learned the next month she was cancer free.
“I was declared cancer-free just before my son’s first birthday on Sept. 13th, 2012,” she said. “So we had a huge party to celebrate his birthday and me beating cancer.”
During her recovery, Farrell realized the undergarments available to women undergoing mastectomies and lumpectomies were not “geared toward the younger, active patient.” So she embarked on a journey to create an undergarment, similar to a sports bra, that addresses the needs of these patients.
In creating Blush Life Apparel, Farrell chose a patented fabric, SeaCell, made from seaweed harvested off the coast of Iceland, made to be soft on skin still sensitive from radiation treatments.
The undergarments also feature slits on the sides for drains, accommodating those patients who are required to drain fluid from a detachable drain bulb a few times a day. Those drains are left for 1-2 weeks after surgery until the patient returns for a follow up visit.
An extra panel above the drain slits allows for stretch and comfort as a woman’s body changes in preparation for reconstructive surgery. During that process, expanders are put in to the chest muscles to expand them in preparation for the final phase of the reconstructive process.
“Your body is literally changing every other week because you’re constantly growing or expanding that muscle,” Farrell says. “That’s another reason why we put this easy zip function on the front because you’re so sore, your range of motion is very limited.”
Farrell created this entire business while mothering an infant and continuing her career as a general manager of an Indianapolis radio station.
Blush Life Apparel will begin accepting its first orders at the end of October 2013. A portion of every sale will go back to fund cancer research through the American Cancer Society. All of the undergarments will be made in the USA and shipped from Carmel, Indiana.
Farrell will be joined by many other women who have fought breast cancer and won. She is one of 50 season ticket holders who will be on the field, helping to form the run-out tunnel during player introductions for Sunday’s game.
Watch a video of this story here.
