Have you ever heard a person say about a situation, “That’s terrible. Somebody needs to do something about that!”  But “somebody” never does?

Meet Diane Johnson. Diane is somebody.

She is a secretary on Blessing Hospital’s obstetrics and gynecology nursing unit Blessed Beginnings. Through the experience of patients, coworkers and family members, Diane has come to understand the needs of women who have undergone breast cancer surgery.

After certain types of breast cancer surgery, fluid builds up in a woman’s chest and needs to be drained over a period of 7-14 days. Typically, the bulb-like collection containers for the fluid are pinned to the woman’s gown or blouse. Some women find that process unsightly and difficult to manage because of the weight of the container.

Diane orders supplies for Blessed Beginnings.  So, when a coworker called attention to flaws in the drainage collection container pinning process, Diane went to work. She shopped the Internet, looking for options and found commercially made aprons that could hold the containers.

“They were not pretty,” she said. “I am a woman. I want something pretty.”

Diane also felt the aprons were too expensive.

A woman of deep faith, Diane was moved to pursue the apron idea. Not a regular follower of the internet platform Pinterest, she logged on in search of a more attractive and cost effective idea. Diane found apron pattern from a woman whose sister experienced breast cancer.

“I am a novice at sewing,” Diane claimed. “I am not a seamstress by any means, but I could do that.”

In January 2019, Diane produced her first breast apron.

“The first few were pretty rough to say they least,” she observed. “But I took some to work and the girls really liked them.”

The first person to receive an apron for use was one of Diane’s coworkers.

“She told me it was a Godsend to her,” Diane said.

Since then, Diane has created 60 aprons on her own time, purchasing material with her own money and providing the aprons to women at no cost.  

But the aprons are not about Diane.

“I just hope that when the nurses take an apron to a patient, that it gives them a little ray of sunshine. I hope it lets them know how much we, as a nursing unit, care about them as they start the process of healing. We do care genuinely about them.”