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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Pamela Thompson Smith, CEO
(404) 696-7492
Breast cancer awareness "in the cards"
for new business
ATLANTA, Ga. – September 16, 2002 – Bare-breasted,
trembling and lying on the examination table’s crinkly paper
sheet, Pamela Thompson Smith transfixed her eyes on the doctor’s
speckled ceiling and contemplated her life’s next step.
"That was my ‘light bulb moment,’
as Oprah calls it," recalls Smith, 45, "experiencing my
biopsy two years ago to determine whether I had breast cancer. I
promised God if the news were unfavorable, I would quit my job and
do what I really wanted. He answered, ‘Why wait for the news
to be bad to live the life I want you to live.’"
Armed with a negative biopsy and nearly 25 years of
communications and publi-cations experience, Smith heeded the invitation.
She "stepped out on faith" and designed an encouragement
greeting card line for women challenged with breast cancer, launching
her own business called Smith Ink.
Smith researched the social expressions industry using
the Internet and public library, consulted with doctors and scoured
the competition in stores’ greeting card departments. Finding
that get-well and encouragement cards either were blank for handwritten
notes or nonspecific such as "Wishing you a speedy recover,"
she began crafting her artwork and prose to specifically address
breast cancer.
Then, another turning point. "I attended a breast
cancer support meeting where about 15 women, all with varying stages
of breast cancer, shared their concerns and joys," says Smith.
"When a cancer survivor expressed that ‘it wasn’t
a lack of caring, but a lack of words’ that people wrestle
with when they learn someone has breast cancer, my mental light
bulbs really popped on all over the place."
Less than nine months after its debut, "Journey",
Smith Ink’s six-card collection, ranging from humorous to
inspirational, sells in 11 metro Atlanta stores. Two medical practices
also have purchased the cards to encourage their newly diagnosed
survivors.
"A biopsy certainly was not what I had envisioned
to thrust me into living life more fully and purposefully,"
says Smith, "but I’m thrilled that it was ‘in the
cards’ for me."
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