A breast cancer survivor who also lost a sister to the disease is bringing glamour to the wardrobes of fellow sufferers. Caroline Kennedy Alexander has created the UK’s first luxury lingerie collection specifically for those dealing with the harrowing condition.
Caroline was first alerted to the cruel blow dealt to women’s self-esteem by breast cancer when her sister Rose O’Connell was diagnosed, only to die from the disease in 2004, aged 53. She then went on to have personal experience of its life-changing effects.
Diagnosed with non-hormonal breast cancer in 2012, despite no genetic link being confirmed in the family, Caroline, 53, from Edinburgh, then received further devastating news when the disease returned in 2015. The mum to textiles graduate Mia Alexander, 23, and computer arts student Oli, 20, said: “Having been through it myself and having watched Rose go through it too, there’s pretty much nothing I don’t know about how cancer can affect your confidence and sense of femininity.
"It’s not just about your physical recovery, if you’re lucky enough to make one, but about your mental recovery too. How you get a sense of self back.”
Caroline, who lost a third sister, Teresa, 59, last month from kidney cancer that spread to her breast, was first alerted to an abnormality in her own right breast during a routine mammogram in 2012. Not wanting to disrupt her children’s lives, as they were still very young, when she was diagnosed with cancer, she opted for minimally invasive treatment.
She still had 25 rounds of gruelling radiotherapy and had the cancer “scooped out” to keep her breast. But when the disease returned two years later, she had a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction with implants.
She said: “When the cancer returned, because I’d had so much of my breast cut away, I didn’t really have any treatment options left. The cancer was scattered. The mastectomy was my only choice. It was the only solution for me.”
The gruelling surgery made her brutally aware not only of the impact of her own changing body on her self esteem, but of how Rose must have felt during her own cancer journey. A former fashion design student, Caroline, one of six sisters who grew up in County Kerry, Ireland, said: “Rose was the oldest sister and she basically reared me.
“We were very close. She didn’t smoke, didn’t drink. She was the healthiest of all of us in terms of how she lived her life. But by the time doctors found her tumour it was the size of a mandarin. They reckoned the cancer had been in her body for years.”
Told it was a hormonal cancer in her breast, Rose, a devoted mum of three who ran a B&B in County Kerry, had chemotherapy and a single mastectomy to remove her right breast. She died four years later after the cancer returned.
Supporting her sister was the first time Caroline, who had previously been unaffected by breast cancer, realised the impact of the illness went far beyond hospital walls. She explained: “Rose would come over from Ireland to Edinburgh to go shopping. But she found it really difficult to find clothes as her remaining breast was quite large. Even simple things like finding a swimsuit she liked became really hard. She found it difficult to dress herself and it affected her confidence.
“When Rose passed, I didn’t cope with the loss very well at all. I would wake up in the morning and feel OK for a few seconds, then I’d get this incredible feeling of loss in my stomach. It wasn’t a dream. It was real. She’d really gone.”
But when she faced cancer herself, particularly when it returned and she had a double mastectomy, Caroline realised first-hand the impact surgery can have on self-esteem. She said: “The thing about cancer is you really feel out of control. The one thing I could take control of was how I felt about myself and trying to get back to a sense of normality.”
But regaining that sense of normality was far easier said than done, according to Caroline, a self-confessed lingerie obsessive. She said: “At first when I was told they’d remove my breasts, I felt relief that this cancer would be gone.
“Weeks later, everyone thinks the cancer is over and you can get back to normal. On the outside, I looked pretty normal. My treatment was over. But inside my confidence was shattered. I was sore and my implants didn’t look or feel like mine. I ran out of so many changing rooms upset with what the shop was offering.
“I remember going out for dinner with my daughter and sitting there in this lovely dress with this big thick strap from a post-surgical bra sticking out. That’s the day I realised I was going to do something about this. I couldn’t find anything to wear that made me feel truly good about myself.”
Having left her job as a gallery director after her second brush with cancer, Caroline decided to take matters into her own hands, by launching a lingerie range for women who have had surgery for breast cancer. Initially, she conducted research into her idea of creating more luxury post-surgery lingerie with cancer-support centres in Scotland.
She then teamed up with fashion designer Sarah Bell Jones to design and develop a range of high-end underwear, which she has just launched under the name LoveRose Lingerie, in honour of her sister, Rose.
She said: “All our lingerie is consciously produced, soft, feminine and wire free. We made the range in beautiful colours with silks and recycled lace and mesh. All our beautiful bras even have matching pants and robes. They are a truly luxurious.”
With more than 150 new breast cancer cases diagnosed in both men and women in the UK every single day, according to Cancer Research UK, it is the most common cancer and 81 per cent of patients have surgery to remove tumours.
As well as being soft and supportive so it is comfortable while people heal, to accommodate prostheses, some of Caroline’s underwear range features ‘pockets’ to hold them in place. Caroline and Sarah’s achievements were properly recognised when they were invited to appear on TV’s Dragon’s Den in an episode that aired in March, although they did not secure the £75,000 investment they had hoped for. Undeterred, they are pushing forwards with plans for a full launch of the brand, including swimwear and nightwear, this July.
Caroline said: “After what I’d been through and what Rose had been through, I couldn’t think of anything better to do with my life than being involved in the cancer community and using my skills to help other people. After having my children, LoveRose really is the best thing I’ve ever done.”
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
