Retirees invent way to help breast cancer survivors

"Busters" to Help Women who had Vasectomies

Losing breasts to cancer can be a shattering experience. A tight-knit group of women at a retirement home in Escondido, Calif., is lessening the pain associated with mastectomies — one loving and skillful stitch at a time. Watch the video and answer the discussion questions below. To view the full video and transcript, click here.

Five Facts: 

• What are “busters”?
• Who is making them?
• Where are these being made?
• Why are many women finding them a better alternative to other products on the market?
• How are the “busters” made?

Discussion questions: 

Focus questions:

• These women saw a problem that they all related to and had the ability to fix. What are some of the smaller problems in your life? Can you think of any innovations that you might be able to make to fix them?
• You can check out our Invention Education lesson series for ideas about how you can make life better for yourself and your communities by inventing solutions to everyday challenges.

Media literacy:

• Who was this story targeted towards? Given all that is going on in the world right now, why did PBS NewsHour choose to air this piece? 

Dig Deeper:

• To learn more about what a mastectomy is, see this article.
• For more on the ‘Sisterhood of the Boobless Wonders’ see this article.

This Daily News Lesson was written by EXTRA intern Cecilia Curran and EXTRA’s Victoria Pasquantonio. Curran is a sophomore at Amherst College.

Republished from PBS NewsHour Extra.