It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and many survivors are fighting to ensure that those affected by the disease have access to basic necessities during and after treatment.
Two-time breast cancer survivor and Bravo TV personality Dr. Jackie Walters is one of those survivors. The Married to Medicine star has partnered with brand Myya to help women who have had breast cancer access all that they need post-mastectomy, from getting a proper surgical bra to breast prostheses.
“Everything that is in the company Myya is what I needed when I was going through the journey not once but twice, and everything that I wanted to make sure everyone else had as they were going through it,” Walters tells PEOPLE exclusively. “It also lends itself to women of color who are looking for products we can’t find. There are prostheses that look just like us.”
The brand specializes in making custom-fit breast prostheses using 3D printing. Products come in 36 different skin tones and can be customized to include anything — even freckles and veins – whatever women need to feel more like themselves. It is generally covered by insurance and delivered directly to your door.
Dr. Jackie’s relationship with the brand started when she added some of Myya’s products to her own “baskets of love” through the foundation 50 Shades of Pink. Her goal was to make women look and feel good while undergoing treatment. Baskets include everything from makeup and beauty products to surgical drain belts and more.
“I went to chemo and I knew that it was really about mindset. To walk into that chemo center, every three weeks for me, it takes a strong mindset to want to go back,” she says. “You don’t feel well. You don’t look as great, so I always dressed up. I would do makeup, lipstick – whatever I needed to look good because when women look good we feel good.”
For Myya founder and CEO Jasmine Jones, starting the line was something that hit close to home. Jones remembers being 9 years old when her grandmother, who had recently had a mastectomy, had an unpleasant shopping experience at a medical supply store for a post surgical bra. She recalls her grandmother being fit for a bra in a cramped space and not being offered many options.
“I just remember my beautiful grandmother who had so much spirit and was so full of energy and life — I remember her expression changing,” Jones says. “It felt like she was a different person in that store. I just remember thinking that someone should make an experience better than that for breast cancer survivors. It should feel like a dignified shopping experience.”
Dr. Jackie recalls her own experience shopping for bras after her double mastectomy, with one store employee audibly gasping when she saw her scars.
“I think I cried and cried,” she says. “When I think about it now, I get a little tearful thinking about having to explain to her why my breasts looked like that.”
For Dr. Jackie and Jones, ensuring that other women do not have those experiences is most important, in addition to raising awareness around underrepresented communities when it comes to breast cancer, particularly Black women who are 40% more likely to die from the disease.
“Creating awareness before it is needed is the goal. Bridging the gap is to make us feel included and [Myya] has done that,” she says.
For Jones, it’s all about helping patients and survivors thrive and giving them access to products that make them feel beautiful and empowered.
“It’s been a labor of love but it’s grown so far beyond my wildest dreams and to be able to partner with Dr. Jackie and to be able to reach so many additional women who love her and follow her and support her is just a dream come true,” Jones says.
