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Ward + Robes Charitable Initiative Aims to Help Teen Cancer Patients Keep Their Individuality
Canada’s Starlight Children’s Foundation has launched a charitable initiative that aims to brighten the days of teens battling cancer.
Ward + Robes, a partnership between the charity and a group of fashion designers, creates unique hospital gowns for teenage patients as a way to give each patient a sense of individuality and personality that is often stripped by their disease and related hospital stays.
https://youtu.be/jaGid6tFEtk
The organization gives designers a template to work with, then allows them to design the gowns with any type of pattern or print they desire.
Contributing designer Andia Amara said that she hopes “…when someone puts this gown on, that they feel like they are stepping into their power.”
A video released by the organization features testimonials from young cancer patients. The video begins with several of them detailing how dehumanizing normal hospital gowns can be.
For example, one boy expresses that the normal gown “Sort of makes me feel like my identity has been stripped away from me.”
From there, the video dovetails into the children receiving their new gowns, and allows them to express their appreciation.
“This gown lets me be who I am outside of the hospital and outside of being ill,” one gushed.
Another exclaims, “It feels like I’m myself. It doesn’t feel like I’m in a hospital anymore.”
Ward + Robes is currently looking to expand from beyond the Toronto, Ontario area to the rest of Canada, and eventually internationally. Information on the initiative and how to contribute can be found on their official website.