Video: The story of the Button Chair

The Button Chair was created in 1998 as a tribute to all women – as well as their families, friends and support networks – who have battled breast cancer in North Carolina. Every button represents a unique story of courage and strength, each having belonged to a breast cancer survivor or someone who lost their battle with the disease.

The chair’s creator, Brooke Kolconay Bryand, donated it for auction at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) Breast Cancer Golf Festival, where it raised $25,000 for the North Carolina Breast Cancer Endowment Fund. From that point forward, the Button Chair was a part of BCBSNC’s breast health initiatives.  Since 2001, the Button Chair has been managed by the BCBSNC Foundation and is the focal point of its Breast Health Project.

While the Button Chair is powerful enough to stand on its own, BCBSNC recognized the importance of adding more dimension to the stories behind each button. As a result, a mobile exhibit was created that has traveled across the state promoting breast health awareness. 

The purpose of the exhibit is to educate visitors about breast cancer, to encourage women to get mammograms and to deliver messages of hope from survivors who have overcome the disease.  The display is a dynamic, interactive experience highlighted by the glass enclosed Button Chair and four hands-on, educational kiosks. Two of the exhibit’s kiosks contain touch-screen monitors with programming featuring breast cancer facts, resources and information concerning mammograms.

The exhibit’s featured elements are video stories of hope, as five North Carolina women (representing Asheville, Durham, Greensboro, Raleigh and Wilson) share their stories of detection, treatment and survival.  These uplifting accounts reveal how the disease has touched each woman’s life, and the lives of their families.  One of the stories is told in the survivor’s native Spanish and all information featured on the touch-screens is available in both English and Spanish.

The exhibit’s other two kiosks include information on mammograms and breast exams and details about the Button Chair, including stories behind specific buttons.  Beads depicting lump sizes detectable by self-exam as well as those detected through mammography are featured. Also included is a mammogram X-ray providing visitors the opportunity to view a cancerous mass.

The Button Chair exhibit is available free of charge to organizations interested in hosting it at a public space or community event.

Want to host the Button Chair? Learn more.