Knockers knocks restoring confidence of breast cancer survivors

Knitters are taking a global initiative to help restore the confidence of breast cancer survivors.

The needle and thread are used to make "knuckle knockers", prosthetic breasts that can be worn comfortably by patients who have undergone a mastectomy after surgery.

Diana Carroll started making them 18 months ago, "in sign of approval" for her stepmother, suffering from breast cancer and defender of breast cancer screening.

She decided to get involved after reading articles about the knockers movement that started in the United States and has since become international.

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Sizes A to E are made from cotton yarn or blended with cotton and bamboo. They are then stuffed with a synthetic coating, said Upper Hutt's wife.

Custom sizes and colors are also possible with more elaborate designs, such as a nipple.

Knitted prostheses are less irritating to painful areas than rubber equivalents after surgery.

According to the Breast Cancer Foundation, about 1600 kiwi women undergo a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Breast cancer is diagnosed in approximately 3,300 women and 25 men a year.

Mary Mooring, a woman from Upper Hutt, had a mastectomy in 2013.

Mooring, who felt embarrassed after surgery, wanted to use a prosthesis, but found the rubbery one uncomfortable and heavy.

"The knuckle knocks that I would use if I went out and wanted to wear a dress or that I felt like a girl.I find them terrific.When I had a breast, they would m … helped me feel more confident. "

At first she was concerned that her chest was not uniform, but the former bodybuilder, who wanted to stay alive, said the rubber prostheses tended to come off.

"I was teaching a hydroaerobic class at the pool when he flew away. Someone dipped under the water and invented it.

"I can laugh now but at that moment I was so embarrassed."

A friend from Mooring, Jane Upton, also from Upper Hutt, was diagnosed with breast cancer around the same time. She had chosen not to undergo breast reconstruction or to wear a prosthesis after her double mastectomy, but she understood everything that a prosthesis could do for a woman's confidence.

"[They are] gloss. You have lost a large part of you, it gives hope to people and makes them feel normal. For some women, it is essential that they have the breasts as they were. "

Upton said that she was part of the "flat revolution".

"The bottom line was that breasts do not define us as women. [My daughter] Kate was at an age [when] there is pressure to look in a certain way. I felt that I was a model for the youngest. "