It’s not about the bag. Even if it is a Kate Spade. Even if it is soft, waxed, natural vachetta cowhide with sporty nylon web detail, constructed to last forever. It’s not the bag, it’s the forever that counts. Especially to a cancer survivor.

Barbara Unell gets that. The Kansas Citian is a cancer survivor herself, so she knows how it feels to complete cancer treatment, physically and emotionally transformed, then have to find your way back to some semblance of a normal life.

When Unell looked for information about how to get back in the swing of life after cancer, she found little. What she found instead was inspiration – to make sure she and others like her had the medical and supportive care they needed to get on with their lives, embracing health. So, in affiliation with the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, she launched Back in the Swing, a nonprofit organization designed to promote health and wellness through innovative fundraising events, survivorship programs, and clinical research in an academic medical setting.

Three years later, Unell happened to read an article in The New York Times by columnist Ellen Tien titled, “The News Was Bad. I Went to Bendel’s.” Tien’s story reflected the new meaning she found in shopping after her diagnosis of breast cancer.

“In shopping, there is an implicit future; when a sales person assures you that the shearling coat you’re buying will last, it helps you to believe that maybe you will, too,” Tien wrote. She viewed shopping as an act of hope. “In shopping, as in all else, where there is hope, there’s life,” Tien wrote.

Unell could relate to Tien’s newfound appreciation for the simple joys of life, and she asked a few friends if they would enjoy experiencing “retail therapy” as a fundraiser for cancer survivors.

Their enthusiasm for the idea convinced her to make shopping the focus of a Back in the Swing fundraising event, and she enlisted the Hawthorne Plaza shopping center in Overland Park to be the first participant.

It was a resounding success. Over the last seven years, hundreds of volunteers have helped Back in the Swing raise nearly $1 million to benefit local breast cancer survivorship programs.

Last year’s retail therapy event – held during October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month – raised a record $600,000 and involved more than 700 stores and restaurants in 27 shopping districts and other locations citywide. A portion of the proceeds will fund leading-edge clinical research on survivorship at the Breast Cancer Prevention Center at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Carol Fabian, MD, director of the Breast Cancer Prevention Center, welcomes the additional resources, which will help establish a unique breast cancer survivorship center at The University of Kansas Hospital’s new Westwood Campus.

“This is one of the first models for survivorship, and it will be very collaborative,” Fabian said. “It is Barb Unell’s vision, and it’s brilliant.”

The admiration is mutual. Unell said, “Dr. Fabian understands survivorship as a key component of the cancer care continuum. Back in the Swing is honored to recognize and support her critical leadership in groundbreaking academic medical research and comprehensive clinical care for breast cancer survivors.” +

For more information on Back in the Swing Retail Therapy, please visit www.backintheswing.org.