BILLINGS, Mont. — The St. Vincent Regional Hospital breast cancer support group has made hundreds of cookies for the patients who are visiting the hospital’s breast center in October.
The group consists of breast cancer patients, survivors and counselors, who meet monthly for activities such as yoga and health education.
Watch the group bake together in the video below:
Five from the group made 320 cookies in one evening, accomplishing half of their goal to make 640 cookies total.
They are reviving a decades-old tradition.
“When COVID hit, we could not have food out for people to touch,” said Pam Kaufman, the hospital’s breast imaging manager. “So it's been six years.”
The group hopes to comfort patients with intimidating appointments, such as mammograms.
“It's something that is personal and sensitive,” said Kaufman.
“They can feel that our whole team cares about them,” said Ella Dugan-Staples, the group coordinator and breast health navigator.
Many patients also face devastating breast cancer diagnoses. Breast cancer survivor Lynne Perry found herself in that position 24 years ago.
“I did the ultrasound and got called back in and they said, ‘We'd like to do an ultrasound on you, and we need to do a biopsy,’” Perry told MTN. “From then on, it's been a journey.”
What followed were years of treatments and checkups.
“I understand that my body's been changed and a lot of me has been changed. There's some alterations that have been done and along with it came alterations in how I think about things,” Perry said. “I'm trying things that I may or may not have tried in the past had I not gone through this journey.”
Perry told MTN she has formed life-long friendships through the breast cancer support group.
“We'll come running across the room to each other because they're there for you,” Perry said.
The group says bringing cookies encourages more women to get mammograms, which helps catch cancer earlier.
“It gets the word out there to other ladies,” Dugan-Staples said.
“They actually will make their appointments to come in and get a cookie,” Kaufman said.
The hospital reported they performed approximately 16,000 mammograms in 2025, a 13% increase from 2024.
Approximately 175 out of the 16,000 women screened had breast cancer.
“I think it means something when you receive a cookie that's been baked by somebody who survived something that you're going to be challenged with in your life,” Perry said.
