Hundreds of Capital region people were running and walking last weekend to fuel funding for a breast cancer cure. But Dimondale’s Jennifer Quack moves with different energy.
The Michigan State University grad, systems engineer, and inventor is building a virtual pathway for those who already have breast cancer, and developing a clothing line for the survivors who continue to fight it.
Quack, 37, is the founder of Path of Pink, a non-profit organization established almost a year ago and dedicated to creating a single-stop online space for anyone seeking information about the killer disease.
“When you’ve got cancer, you need information, and you want it now. I envision a site like Google on steroids,” Quack says.
Four years ago, at age 34, Quack was diagnosed with breast cancer, about the same time she learned she was pregnant. Getting through a modified radical mastectomy and the ensuing treatments, she discovered the difficulties of getting good information from the Internet.
“You could click on a topic and find it was written for physicians, or that you had to pay for information. Some links were dead. Others didn’t cover the topic they said they did.”
Her fledgling site, already up, is one of those receiving a gift of programming assistance from Lansing Give Camp, the event in which 50 or so computer programmers piled into Impression 5 Science Center last weekend for two days straight to help 11 charities with their web sites.
But Quack has a bigger goal than information. She’s developing a clothing line called “Survivor Style” just for cancer survivor needs. It targets fun and sexy fashions that will conceal surgical scarring and hide breast forms.
The quintessential networker, she’s gotten help from local designers and seamstresses, as well as design students from Lansing Community College and the Student Apparel Design Association (SADA) at MSU. Five design prototypes are finished and will be online in a couple of weeks.
“You might even be able to get a long, elegant gown for the holidays,” she says.
Source: Jennifer Quack, Path of Pink
Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.