After Cancer

Many organizations are devoted to stomping out breast cancer. But few focus on what happens after a woman survives — when life doesn't exactly go back to normal.

That's why Ed Morse Automotive Group has thrown its support behind My Hope Chest, a Largo-based nonprofit that raises money for women who have successfully battled breast cancer but can't afford to have breast reconstruction surgery — costs not covered by Medicare and Medicaid. It was founded in 2003 by Alisa Savoretti, a former Las Vegas showgirl and breast cancer survivor.

Savoretti had a mastectomy and continued to perform as the “Lopsided Showgirl,” but it took her nearly three years to undergo breast reconstruction surgery. During that time, she came to learn that the bulk of breast cancer fundraising efforts go toward awareness, early detection and treatment, and that tens of thousands of American women were living breastless, many of them suffering mental and emotional problems caused by feeling less than whole.