Our Mission
Karen’s Closet for Breast Cancer Care, Inc. provides comfort, support, and practical resources to breast cancer patients in Howard County, Maryland—at no cost. Through our electric recliner lending program and other recovery essentials, we hope to make the days and weeks of treatment and recovery a little easier for patients and their families and caregivers.
Our Story
Karen’s Closet began with one woman’s experience with breast cancer and a growing circle of women supporting one another. What started with a support group and sharing recovery items from a room in Karen’s home grew into a nonprofit dedicated to providing comfort and practical support to breast cancer patients throughout Howard County, Maryland—at no cost.
How Karen’s Closet Began
Karen’s Closet for Breast Cancer Care, Inc. began with one woman’s experience with breast cancer and the connections that followed.
After founder Karen Wagner was diagnosed with breast cancer, neighbors, coworkers, friends, and friends of friends began connecting her with other women facing their own diagnoses. As those connections grew, Karen made it her mission to support women through the challenges of breast cancer treatment and surgery. She wanted each woman to feel seen, heard, understood, and never alone.
Karen started a support group called Breast Cancer Connection. She also began loaning out the cold therapy mittens and booties she had worn during her own chemotherapy treatments. They had been recommended to her to help reduce the risk of chemotherapy-related neuropathy. To date, six women have worn those same mittens and booties during their own treatments.
Karen hoped that each woman who received the mittens and booties would feel the strength of those who had worn them before her—women who understood the challenges of treatment and could offer encouragement through their shared experience.
Karen during chemotherapy treatment, using cold therapy mittens and booties recommended to help reduce the risk of chemotherapy-related neuropathy—items she would later share with other women during their chemotherapy treatments.
Soon, Karen began sharing other items that had helped during her surgical recoveries, including drain pocket shirts, a drain belt, a mastectomy pillow, a wedge pillow, and other comfort essentials. As the network grew, people began dropping off their own recovery items for Karen to pass along to others in the Breast Cancer Connection circle.
And Then Came the Name
Karen and her husband, Bobby, have an office just off the entrance to their home.
As more pillows, mittens, booties, and recovery items filled the room, Bobby looked around one day and remarked that their office was turning into “Karen’s Closet.”
And that’s how Karen’s Closet got its name.
Why We Loan Electric Recliners
After a bilateral mastectomy and three additional reconstructive surgeries, Karen knew firsthand how important her recliner was during her own recovery.
She wanted other breast cancer patients to have access to that same comfort and a place to rest after surgery without having to purchase a recliner themselves. That experience inspired her to add an electric recliner lending program to Karen’s Closet.
The recliner lending program is designed to bring comfort and peace of mind to patients and their families and caregivers. Providing a recliner means one less thing to arrange or worry about during an already challenging time. When a patient no longer needs the chair, it is returned, cleaned, disinfected, and prepared to help another local breast cancer patient —carrying forward the care, strength, and encouragement of the women who used it before.
Karen’s actual recliner and mastectomy pillow, used during her own surgical recoveries and the inspiration behind Karen’s Closet’s recliner lending program.
Supporting You Alongside Your Medical Team
Karen’s Closet provides comfort and practical support alongside your medical care—not in place of your surgeon’s guidance. Our goal is to help make the days and weeks of recovery a little easier for you and your family and caregivers.
A Message from Our Founder
You Are Not Alone
If you have recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, I see you. I hear you. I understand.
Please reach out. You don’t have to navigate your breast cancer journey alone.
With care,
Karen
Founder, Karen’s Closet for Breast Cancer Care, Inc.