'I turned devastating breast cancer diagnosis into an incredible sewing project'

A devoted daughter has turned her mum’s devastating cancer diagnosis into a sewing project which has given hope to thousands of women across the world. Before Katelynn Devinney’s mum Trish mum went into hospital for a mastectomy in 2022 a family friend gifted her a zip-up sweatshirt that had pockets sewn on the inside. They didn’t know it at the time but the pockets were designed to hold the drainage tubes that are put in place after surgery to remove one or both breasts, as part of treatment for breast cancer.

Wearing this sweatshirt after the operation meant that her mum could be comfortable and not have to deal with the pain of tubing digging into her. And this made her daughter determined to pay the kindness forward and create some sweatshirts for other breast cancer patients.

She roped in her two best friends Lori and Kiersten, and got out her sewing machine, and got to work.

Mrs Devinney said: “My mum asked if I could get her another one, because when she washes it, that she could have another one.

“So I just said I have a sewing machine I haven’t used in 20 years so why don’t I just make one for you?

“I put it out there on my social media and said ‘Hey, I made one of these for my mom. If anybody knows anybody that is having a mastectomy, I’d love to keep making these for people who might need one.

“I think I put it in a Facebook group too, and people just started reaching out and it was like, word of mouth, people talking about it.

“And I just started getting so many requests in and people just started donating me money to do it. And my goal at the time was five a month. And we’re at four, we average 400 a month now.”

The mother-of-four is based in Philadelphia, USA, but people all over the world can request sweatshirts through the Pockets of Hope website.

They can also help by donating money to pay for the sweatshirts, and can get involved by stitching pockets and then posting them back to Mrs Devinney so her team, which has expanded way past the original three, can stitch them in to the clothing.

Mrs Devinney said: “My mission has always been to help as many women as I can, and it’s always going to be that.

“And I’m going to try as hard as I can to be able to. My goal is to have the ability at any point to have the sweatshirt shipped out the same day as we get the request.

The 37-year-old, who works in nuclear power insurance, says her mum cannot believe something so great has come from her having breast cancer.

She said: “My mum is doing really well. She’s my biggest cheerleader.

“She can’t believe what this is and what came of her diagnosis. I think she’s just blown away. She cries every time we talk about it, you know, tears of joy.

“I think she’s just, just so proud of me. She’s always telling me how proud she is. And I always tell her, this is all your fault.”