On May 5, 2012, Heather Owens answered the phone call that changed her life. A few months earlier, Owens found herself lactating, but she was not pregnant and never had been. Months later, Owens felt a lump in her breast. She had the lump removed May 3. Her doctor then revealed the lump tested positive for cancer.

After Owens was diagnosed, her husband Derek Owens started a blog to share her story.

“We were being bombarded with texts, phone calls, emails, etc.,” Derek said. “Heather [Owens] and I, both, are big into social media, so I figured this would be a great way to keep everyone up to date and allow people that we might not know personally, but have a connection with, follow her story as well.”

Heather Owens’ nieces and nephews call her “Aunt Fancy,” so Derek Owens titled the blog “Fighting Fancy.”

Heather Owens began searching for support groups and financial aid for her treatment. Twenty-eight years old at the time, she found that there were not many outlets for younger women with breast cancer. At her last doctor’s appointment before beginning chemotherapy Heather Owens met a 22-year-old woman who was about to begin chemo as well. After comforting her, answering her questions and listing some expectations, Heather Owens decided that she wanted to make this woman a care package.

“I made her this bag filled with all the products people had told me I need, like stuff for hair loss and joint pain,” Heather Owens said. “She loved it, and we just called it a Fighting Fancy bag because that was the name of my blog.”

Soon after Owens made her first bag, she began chemotherapy. Her longtime friend Jeanne McNeill realized that Owens loved making the care-package-style bags and wanted her to continue making them.

“She bought 250 bags,” Heather Owens said. “And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. What am I going to do with 250 bags?’ But she ordered them, and she had ‘Fighting Fancy’ written on them…so, I started collecting all of the [necessary] items.”

Originally, the bags were intended for young women with breast cancer, but now reach women of all ages with any type of cancer. Owens carefully chose each of the products inside the bag. She used her personal experiences and advice from other women to determine what would be included.

“You learn really quickly,” Owen said. “For example, you can’t get your teeth cleaned when you are going through chemo because your white blood cells are so low, so there is this special toothpaste and mouthwash.”

Derek Owens described the most difficult part of his wife’s journey as seeing her upset over the physical changes. “It is very difficult to have to sit back and watch helplessly while your wife is forced to go through chemo…especially at age 28,” Derek said. “But she carefully selected products that serve a purpose. When we first started getting the products in, I had to keep asking Heather what everything was because I didn’t know all of the symptoms that went along with chemo.”

Inside the bag are the following essentials: Nioxin Cleanser for hair growth, Purell hand sanitizer, Poise pads for leaky bladders, Biotene mouthwash, Queasy Pops for nausea and Biofreeze Pain Relieving Gel. In addition to these, Owens worked with several cosmetic brands to include beauty products in the bag: Burt’s Bees lip balm, Maybelline eye palette, Laura Mercier makeup, L’Oreal makeup and a custom pink OPI nail polish.

“OPI donated nail polish, and they let me make my own color—my own little ‘Fighting Fancy’ color,” Heather Owens said.

Several women knit hats for the bags, and others made hand-sewn scarves. Owens wore a special necklace to each chemotherapy session and now gives the same necklace to each Fighting Fancy bag recipient.

“I wore this necklace every week that’s really thin and gold and has a heart on it. I want all of them to have the necklace,” she said.

These handpicked items are those that make “Fighting Fancy” different than any other non-profit. Owens has carefully selected products that serve a purpose and connect all of these women. She takes the time to write a personal note to every woman receiving a bag.

“I have talked to every single person I’ve ever sent a bag to. It’s hard sometimes, but it makes it more special,” she said.

As more people began buying, requesting and nominating others for the Fighting Fancy bags, Heather Owens began to receive lots of local attention. She was featured on the cover of Soiree magazine, central Arkansas’ most-read monthly magazine, proudly showing off her bald head. Shortly after this cover story, she began receiving national attention. Heather Owens was chosen as the Elvis Duran “Badass Chick of the Day,” and was interviewed on Fox News Live.

“I think we both expected it to be a local thing, but little did we know, we would be shipping bags to Scotland and Ireland a couple of months after starting the organization,” Derek Owens said.

With the help of Scarlet Clothing, Heather Owens and her team put on their first annual Rock the Runway fashion show benefitting Fighting Fancy in June. It was a high end fashion, New York-inspired runway show in which several of the most popular boutiques in Little Rock , Ark. participated. The models wore outfits from the following designers and stylists: Monique Lhuillier, Cynthia Steffe, Chan Luu, Nicole Miller, Scarlet, Beyond Cotton, and Michael Kors. A cancer survivor modeled each boutique’s final look. Rock the Runway raised over $80,000.

Fighting Fancy has turned into much more than a non-profit that sends out chemo care-packages to women. It has become a networking group where young women can reach out to other women. After being diagnosed with breast cancer at such a young age and feeling thrown into a world that she had deemed only for the elderly, Heather Owens made the decision to turn her life around, raise awareness to women everywhere and give back — a decision that not only changed her life, but continues to change women’s lives everywhere.

The Owens describe this experience as the most rewarding of all. Derek said, “The smiles we see make the bald heads and scars all go away.”