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An East Tennessee artist found out she had breast cancer, only after a Sevier County hospital paid for her mammogram in an effort to “Paint the Mountains Pink.”
TENNESSEE, USA — When it comes to breast cancer, staying on top of yearly mammograms is crucial, but patients don’t always have the means to pay for screenings.
Artist Pinkie Mistry credits a free program in Sevierville with helping find her breast cancer and create a brighter future.
As Mistry adds color to a blank canvas in her downtown Maryville studio, she’s reminded of how hope has helped paint her healing journey in her life. She has been a creative for as long as she can remember.
“I love to paint, and I love colors and textures,” Mistry said. “I’m really thankful to be able to do what I love.”
Her gallery, with a flowering mural on the front of the building, is an eye into her life and what she enjoys creating.
“I like beautiful things, and I love our nature and like where we live, and our mountains, to me I think we live in a paradise,” Mistry said.
She has tons of art supplies, works in progress, finished pieces, and products on the walls and on shelves in the studio. It’s her home away from home. But, where she is today did not come without strokes of luck and love.
Nearly eight years ago, she had a brush with breast cancer.
Mistry grew up in Sevierville and was living there in 2017 as a single mother and graphic designer. When she turned 40 in February of 2017, she knew it was time to start getting mammograms, but she did not have insurance on herself, just her son.
She has heard about a program through LeConte Medical Center in Sevierville, called “Paint the Mountains Pink.”
Aaron Burns, the president and CAO with LMC said the program’s goal is to educate women about the importance of mammograms and also to pay for the screenings for women who qualify.
It’s made possible through the Robert F. Thomas Foundation. Money raised through that foundation can then provide care for women in Sevier County.
To qualify, you must be a woman 35 years and older who lives or works in Sevier County. You cannot have insurance, and you can’t have had a mammogram in the last year.
In the time the program has been around, 500 women have been helped. They want more people to use the program too.
“Having a program that is focused around addressing the financial burdens that some of the patients have faced, I think it’s a phenomenal thing for Sevier County,” Burns said. “It’s really been great for 500 people, but there are so many more that could benefit from it, so the more we can get the word out, the better. It will save lives.”
At LCM, the breast center prides itself on the advanced technology, knowledge and treatment the staff is able to provide to the people who call the mountains home.
Mistry was shocked when her first mammogram found her breast cancer, but she had a lumpectomy and radiation as her treatment to get rid of it. She even moved from Sevier County to Maryville during her radiation treatment but continued to make the trip to Sevierville.
After Mistry’s treatment, she gave back to the thing that saved her life. She painted a piece called “Amongst the Thorns” that she donated to the Robert. F Thomas gala in 2019 to raise money for the Paint the Mountains Pink program.
The painting shows the silhouette of a woman with a rose growing inside of her.
“Roses are a beautiful, very delicate flower, but there are thorns all over the place,” Mistry said.
Dr. Santee, an oncologist at LCM and Ms. Linda Ogle bought the painting, and then together donated the piece back to the breast center where it now hangs proudly in the waiting room and is the first thing patients see when they open the door.
“It’s just a really beautiful message to women that there’s hope, and this is a place of healing and that’s why they come, and that’s why we want you to come,” Burns said. “We want you to feel that this is a place of healing where you’re gonna be loved and cared for.
Mistry’s stroke of strength through her diagnosis turned what could have been a smudge on her life’s canvas into a testimony of healing. She said breast cancer made her stronger.
She said she also gives back to Blount Memorial Hospital now as well since it is in her backyard. But she still visits LeConte, because they hold such a big part of her story.
If you are interested in applying for the program or even donating to it, you can visit painthemountainspink.com.