Cancer Survivor Raffles Quilts to Provide Financial Help for Women in Need

Story originally published by The Norwalk Reflector.

Pat Scheid is a survivor.

The Monroeville, Ohio, resident knows firsthand how it feels when the cards aren't in your favor. She was diagnosed with breast cancer, a disease that is highly treatable when caught early, but holds only a 26 percent survival rate when advanced too far, according to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Scheid knows the importance of getting regular mammograms simply because that is what saved her life, and now she is working to save others, too.

Scheid, a longtime sewer, made a Double Wedding Ring quilt to raffle off in a contest advertised in a magazine. The winner received matching funds for their quilt, and Scheid's quilt took home the prize, raising more that $4,000. She donated her winnings to the Fisher-Titus Medical Center, who then started a fund that provides mammogram screenings for women with financial obstacles that prevent them from regular check-ups.

Scheid didn't stop there, however, and she continues to donate to the fund every year since its start in 2001. She has since recruited peers to help her in creating award-winning quilts, the most recent one requiring around 281 hours of quilting.

"I have met ladies who say, 'You know what? I got a mammogram through the Mammography Fund,'" Scheid told The Norwalk Reflector. "That's when I really feel like I've accomplished something because it's somebody who wouldn't have gone. That makes me feel good to be helpful."