Every woman who walks this road carries a story someone else needs to hear.
A story can reach a woman that a statistic never will. It can be the reason someone finally schedules the mammogram, calls a friend back or walks into her first gathering.
This page is where the women of Rilassati tell those stories, in their own words and on their own terms.
The first story
A yes that became 25 years
Every story on this page traces back to one. In 2002, a parish priest in Port Arthur asked Dr. Winifred "Winnie" Frelow to help the women he watched face breast cancer alone. She was an educator, a pillar of her community and a woman walking that road herself.
She said yes. She opened her living room, and the next year about 25 women came to a simple luncheon of salad and sweets. They talked honestly about screening, about fear and about getting through it together.
When Winnie passed in 2013, the room did not go quiet. Elvira Narcisse kept the circle going through Sacred Heart Catholic Church, and in 2018 Winnie's daughter, Tracey Young, brought Winners For Life under Rilassati. Today roughly 200 women gather each spring, and every one of them is part of the story Winnie started.
Stories we are gathering
We are collecting stories from across our community now. We are listening for voices like these.
Survivors
What you wish someone had told you, what got you through treatment and what life looks like now.
Daughters, sisters and caregivers
What it was like to sit beside someone you love, and what helped you keep going.
Neighbors living with diabetes
The everyday choices, the small wins and the people who make managing it easier.
Families who remember
Honoring someone you lost, and what you want other families to know.
Volunteers and members
Why you said yes, and what the sisterhood has given back to you.
Women who got screened
What finally moved you to make the appointment, and what you would tell a friend who keeps putting it off.
How sharing works
- You shareSend as much or as little as you like using the form below. A few sentences are enough to start.
- We talkSomeone from Rilassati reaches out to thank you and to ask how you would like your story told.
- You approveYou see the final version before anyone else does. You choose whether to use your full name, your first name only or no name at all.
- We share itOnly with your written approval, and you can ask us to take it down at any time.
Not sure what to write?
Start with any of these. There is no wrong way to tell your story.
- The moment you knew you were not alone
- Something you wish you had known sooner
- A person who showed up for you, and how
- What you would say to a woman hearing the news today
- Why you keep coming back to the seminar or the brunch
Share your story
Nothing is published without your permission, and you can ask to talk with a real person first.