Local business owner gives back to breast cancer survivor
In October of 2016, the Skinnytees family created an annual giving event during Breast Cancer Awareness month, where funds were raised and matched by Skinnytees during the Breast Sale Ever and given to help one woman in treatment for breast cancer. This year, Linda Schlesinger-Wagner, the CEO of Skinnytees, will be honoring, Jeannie Opperman from the Detroit, MI area. It seems that cancer has always been a part of Jeannie Opperman life, from her mother’s passing of lung cancer when she was just 21 and then the devastating passing of her first born and only daughter, Madeline or Maddie, of a Wilms tumor when she was just 9 years old. She was diagnosed at 6 and was a very courageous little girl who did not let cancer change who she was, a beautiful soul. But Jeannie was still not prepared for the emotional and physical impact that followed the evening she first felt the lump in her right breast more than a year ago. As of this month she has completed 18 weeks of chemotherapy. That was followed by a double mastectomy and the removal of 7 lymph nodes, with 28 consecutive doses of radiation. One last hurdle this year will be her reconstructive surgery.