Town Journal Article 10/13/2022

Upper Saddle River resident and high school student Charlotte Abrams will be leading a class at the Englewood Public Library on Oct., 18, at 7p.m. teaching participants to make mastectomy pillow to help make car travel more comfortable for women recovering from breast surgery.

The class will be held in the Mackay Room, and also on Zoom and FB Live.

Charlotte is providing all the materials and stuffing to make the pillows. All levels of sewing experience are encouraged to participate. Participants can take the pillows home or donate them to someone they know or to a local hospital.

Someone close to Charlotte had breast cancer and underwent a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction surgeries. Charlotte witnessed both the discomfort when traveling in the car and the fear around it so she came up with the idea to make a form-fitting pillow that would provide protection from the seat belt and provide comfort during the healing process and reduce the concern around car travel. Charlotte calls her design the "POSHPillow," where "POSH" is an acronym for Post-Op Supportive Hug.

With October being national Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Charlotte's goal is to make as many of these pillows as possible and to teach others to do so as well so that they can be given to loved ones.