Scarves of support

A box arrived at Lara MacGregor’s Edgewood home in 2007, shortly after her diagnosis with breast cancer. Inside was a set of scarves and a note from a friend of a friend who had battled a similar diagnosis: “You can do this.”

“I wore Kelly’s scarves throughout my treatment and was really inspired,” MacGregor said.

For 30-year-old MacGregor, who was pregnant with her second child when diagnosed, the gift wasn’t just about the words of encouragement from a breast cancer survivor. As her hair fell out through a yearlong treatment — including radiation, a double mastectomy and reconstruction — a box of head scarves was a very practical gift, too.

“It was just so perfectly timed,” MacGregor said. “Your whole appearance changes and you feel self-conscious, you also just feel really rotten… for me, putting on this bright, colorful scarf was one way I could feel hopeful and feel beautiful.”

After MacGregor’s treatment, she offered to return the scarves, but Kelly asked her to pass them on instead. First she met a woman in Pittsburgh and shared the story and a scarf. When the MacGregors left Homewood to move to Kentucky in 2009, she connected with another breast cancer patient and shared the gift of a scarf again. Both women felt the same encouragement MacGregor had when she started treatment.

This prompted MacGregor to start Hope Scarves in 2012, a nonprofit that provides head covers at no cost to women who are in any type of cancer treatment. So far, Hope Scarves has sent 3,000 scarves to recipients in all 50 states and 12 countries, including over 90 sent to people in Alabama. Each scarf carries with it tying instructions and the story of a fellow cancer survivor, many of whom received a scarf of their own at one time.

“It carries almost like this extra power… from the women who wore them before,” MacGregor said.

Patients can request a scarf for themselves, or family and friends can donate one. MacGregor said corporate organizations sometimes sponsor a number of Hope Scarves to send to patients. When they’ve completed treatment, cancer survivors can choose to send their story and scarf back to be given to someone else.

In the initial days after a diagnosis, MacGregor said cancer patients’ heads are spinning with so many new details to remember. She wants to make sure that getting a scarf isn’t something new patients have to worry about. Hope Scarves has started programs in Kentucky, Michigan and Texas working with hospitals to offer scarves in oncology offices.

“So patients can receive a scarf right when they start treatment,” MacGregor said.

For the fifth hospital program, MacGregor is returning to her former home city. Through Alabama Oncology, which has offices throughout the area, and other local clinics, MacGregor wants to bring Hope Scarves to Birmingham’s cancer patients.

Since MacGregor’s own cancer struggle started in Homewood, she said it feels like she has “come full circle” by starting the program there. Without family in the area, MacGregor had to rely on the friends she made in her neighborhood, her track club, All Saints Episcopal Church and her job at McWane Science Center as she navigated the double ordeal of cancer and a pregnancy.

“We had a lot of fun in Homewood,” MacGregor said. “We never felt alone.”

Remodeling their Edgewood home also gave MacGregor a goal to focus on besides her treatments.

“It was really a great outlet for me while I was going through treatment,” MacGregor said. “I really feel like that house got me through a lot of my treatment.”

After several years in remission, MacGregor was diagnosed in 2014 with metastatic, stage 4 breast cancer, which is ultimately terminal. Through Hope Scarves, she hopes to keep sharing the impact of that initial box of scarves to other cancer patients around the world.

The campaign to bring Hope Scarves to Alabama, called Sweet Hope Alabama, kicked off March 14 with a sales event at fab’rik on 29th Avenue South. MacGregor returned to Homewood for the event, where a portion of proceeds benefits the placement of scarves in local oncology offices.

To learn more, donate to Sweet Hope Alabama or share your story, visit hopescarves.org.