It all started with a prayer request.

Powell resident Stacey Atkinson was fighting breast cancer and needed support. That's when then Minnesota resident Brenda Nelson called her to offer prayers and to listen. Nelson also had breast cancer and knew the importance of lending an ear.

With much in common, their long, daily conversations voiced their grief, trauma and faith. In their journeys together — including both having mastectomies during the same week — they became the best of friends.

"We ended up having our mastectomies five days apart. So we actually were going through everything together," Nelson said in an interview with the Tribune. "We were on text all through the year, and mailing stuff back and forth. We finally met in person February of 2020."

It's one thing to have a friend lend an ear, but with both women going through very similar treatment at the same time, their experiences together helped build an inseparable bond.

"To have somebody that you can actually text and say, 'I'm in so much pain today,' and have her respond and be like, 'Oh, me too,' and be able to actually walk this road together is entirely a different thing," Atkinson said.

For every indignity they faced, they had each other. Through the loss of their hair in chemotherapy, surgeries and the forever changes to their bodies and daily toll on their souls, they found comfort in each other.

"Every every hair on your body falls out, and it's just the weirdest, most foreign, alien feeling to me," Atkinson said.

"Losing my hair was harder than losing my breasts because everybody could see it, and I looked sick. The rest, nobody else saw," added Nelson.

There were multiple fears and family concerns as each cared for the other. There were already programs out there to help financially, yet, based on their experiences, both women felt there was a need for more support in the Basin. Instead of just day-dreaming and wearing pink ribbons, they decided to do something to help.

After the two warriors beat their prognosis, they decided to start a nonprofit with the main goal to help make sure those fighting the breast cancer knew "they are not alone," Atkinson said.

According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 321,910 new cases of invasive breast cancer and 60,730 new cases of noninvasive (DCIS) breast cancer are diagnosed in women each year. The National Institutes of Health reports that over a 20-year period, roughly 25% of women diagnosed with breast cancer die from the disease, which includes deaths from late recurrences or other health factors related to the condition.

The new friends wanted nothing more than to give everyone the same comfort they found in knowing there was someone there for them, helping to wage a war against their diagnosis.

"To be able to actually walk the road together is entirely a different thing," Atkinson said.

They decided to start a nonprofit organization to help Big Horn Basin neighbors through the battles with breast cancer; that's when they cofounded the Beyond the Ribbon Foundation.

The foundation initially sought to provide emotional support, financial assistance, and creature comforts to breast cancer warriors in the Basin and show them they are not alone. But as the foundation grew and donors made it possible to expand, they now reach out to all patients with cancer diagnosis, not just breast cancer.

"When you get a cancer diagnosis, your life as you knew it is done," Nelson said. "Everything from that moment on is about cancer and what you had planned for the next day or week or month or year doesn't matter because you don't know if you're going to make it there. The world stops turning, and now you deal with cancer."

More than 620,000 cancer deaths are reported each year in the U.S., making it the second most common cause of death after heart disease.

The two friends decided to create "combat bags" to be given to those receiving a cancer diagnosis. The bags are filled with creature comforts for cancer "warriors" during treatment.

But their assistance doesn't end there. They also offer financial assistance in the form of gift cards and monetary grants, as well as emotional support in the form of friendship, camaraderie, and prayer.

They are both well equipped to offer advice and they know exactly how it feels when your life comes crashing down the first time you hear the words, 'you have cancer.'

Yet, the two friends and their families were about to face another challenge of life-altering, unthinkable sadness.

Tragedy

On Feb. 24, 2023, two of Nelson's daughters were killed in a tragic two-vehicle crash on an icy portion of U.S. Highway 14A, east of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center. Nelson was about to face the worst days of her life. Yet, thanks to her new friend, Nelson once again would not have to go through it alone.

Atkinson was there for Nelson every day. She also organized support efforts for the family.

It wasn't just a diagnosis that brought them together and gave them strength. Their faith helped guide them forward, they both insist.

It was their Christian faith that comforted them; first through cancer and that Nelson's daughters had been called home and would be waiting to greet family and friends as they too followed their own journeys to heaven. Nelson said if were not for her faith, she might not have made it through the loss of her children.

"If it was not for God, I would be dead because I would have killed myself after my girls left. I just I know I would have," she said.

Once again, Nelson found comfort in her new friend and decided to react to the losses by sharing with others. She has written three books she hopes will help and inspire those going through grief.

The first book is titled "Our Rough and Perfect Journey." It details Nelson's cancer story, of which Atkinson played a large roll. The second volume is a book of poetry called "My grief, His Glory."

The collection of poetry is raw emotion coming out of Nelson as she processed grief. The third book is a daily devotional called "What If Today My Life Begins to Change."

"Brenda is a Christian. But that doesn't mean you get a free pass on hardship, sorrow, tragedy or grief," said friend Tami Lineback of Nelson's volumes. "But it does mean you grieve differently than those without hope and faith in the eternal life-giver, Jesus. You know this is not the end."

The poems evoke mental images — some are nightmarish, describing feelings that ranged from being shattered to the point of feeling numb to feelings of pain beyond what was thought possible to endure.

One poignant poem exposes the mother's horrific journey after the loss of Wendy and Shannah:

Excerpt from Rocks in a Jar

... It's that I can,

until I can't.

No warning.

No respite.

No hiding.

It's just sudden tears.

Heartbreak.

Remembering again that they're gone (though I never really forgot).

The broken pieces

rattle around my head

Like so many rocks in a jar.

Other poems are themed on relationships and and her faith. They are heartbreaking and uplifting and transcendent at the same time. They are the raw thoughts of a mother struggling through a cancer diagnosis and, yet, complicated by unspeakable grief from the loss of her children and memories of blood and twisted metal on the road.

In the book she writes; "Grief never leaves. It just submits momentarily to nicer emotions." In the end, her anger is tamped down by her faith and trusting God will somehow make "beauty from my ashes."

Increased efforts

For Atkinson and Nelson, one way to get beyond all the grief, fears, insecurities and an unknown future is to reach out to others beginning the process of fighting cancer. Christians are taught in the Second Commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself."

The dynamic duo are increasing the size of their neighborhood as their foundation thrives, now including anyone with a cancer diagnosis in the entire Basin.

To raise needed funds for their increased efforts, the foundation is holding a fundraising event, the Boots & Blooms Cancer Benefit/Fundraiser, on Oct. 24, at Heart Mountain Hall in Powell.

All financial and comfort care donations stay in the Big Horn Basin.

The event features an Italian dinner provided by WYOld West Brewing Company, a cash bar by K-Saloon, live auction by Heny Auctions and Swenson Auctions, silent auctions throughout the evening and a 50/50 raffle.

This month at Blair's Super Market, the "round-up" charity at the register is being dedicated to the growing charity to help support Combat Bags and other programs organized by the nine volunteers who make up the charity's board of directors.

Are you or someone you love undergoing cancer treatment?

Beyond the Ribbon Foundation seeks to provide emotional support, financial assistance and creature comforts to cancer warriors in the Big Horn Basin and to show them they are not alone. For more information, see beyondtheribbonwy.org/.