Andrea Smith

1 month ago | stlmag.com | Emily Adams |Andrea Smith |Andréa Smith |Nicholas Phillips |Cheryl Baehr

A hospital gift shop provides respite in the midst of a personal challenge or trauma. It offers ways to celebrate or support a loved one on a medical journey. It gives community to hospital staff and social interaction for people who may be isolated within the confines of a decidedly not-homey environment. At Missouri Baptist Medical Center, the Ballas Boutique is all of this for the people who enter the shop.

1 month ago | stlmag.com | Andrea Smith |Andréa Smith |Nicholas Phillips |Christy Carew Marshall |Emily Adams

At age 11, Lauren Lee received a cancer diagnosis two days before Christmas. She fought Hodgkin’s Lymphoma for about six months, and after five rounds of chemotherapy and radiation at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, she emerged cancer-free but with a warning for later in life: She needed to start checking for breast cancer at age 25–much younger than the typical recommendation for screenings starting at age 40.