Cancer is Not for Sissies
By Stewart Lytle
On a Wednesday in 2006, Lisa Manley was preparing to move with her husband and young son to Basel, Switzerland. She was a medical recruiter and was headed for a new job at the Novartis world headquarters.
“The house was packed, and we were moving in one week,” the Newburyport native said. She knew she had not been feeling well, but wrote it off to the stress of the move. But that day, her life changed when the doctor told her she had stage three, advanced colon-rectal cancer.
“Things changed drastically, no Swiss chocolate for me,” she said.
The treatment, including several surgeries, took more than a year before the Mass General doctors declared her cancer free.
After not being able to work during her treatment, locking herself away in a cocoon, she returned to medical recruiting. Her husband, Morgan, a former mortgage broker, had also become a medical recruiter. But she quickly realized the experience of fighting cancer had changed her. She had been a workaholic. Now she was being told to slow down.
“I felt I wanted to do something different,” she said. “I asked myself, what have I learned from the experience?”
Then a friend introduced her to Michele Mathers, a double cancer survivor, who she described as “a fireball.” Michele wanted to design a series of greeting cards that offered “sassy messages about cancer.”
One of the first and most enduring message is “Chemo is not for Sissies.” The slogan, now found on t-shirts, caps and coffee mugs, was followed shortly by “hip hip hooray, no more radiation.” Both sold well at hospital gift shops and boutique card shops.
Thus was born Butinski Designs.
“Keep in mind I have never been artistic,” the former medical recruiter said.
Manley and Mathers studied “Photoshop for Dummies” and started designing messages on everything from caps and t-shirts to tote bags and blankets. Greeting cards are the staple of the business, but the web site: www.butinski.com offers a wide range of inspirational and fun gifts including jewelry and a line of cards with a pendant in them that she describes as “a gift and card all in one.” The pendants have words like “believe” on them.
“I thought a keepsake was a nice idea for anyone going through a hard time,” she said.
After only a year in business and going it alone because Mathers’ life was too crowded to help build the business, Manley entered one of her cards into the prestigious competition for a Louie Award – the Oscars for the greeting card industry. Out of more than 1,000 entries, Butinski Designs made the finals.
“We did not win, but it was a huge honor to be one of three companies and be in the company with the big international companies,” Manley said.
It has also given Butinski Designs a world of credibility in approaching greeting card shops and other stores to carry her line of cards and gifts.
So why did she name her company Butinski? The Web site defines a Butinski as “A person who interferes in the affairs of others; busy body.”
Manley and Mathers, whose grandmother gets the credit for saying repeatedly “don’t be a butinski,” turned the phrase on its head.
“Whoever said that being a butinski is a bad thing?” the web site says. “We believe that life is too short NOT to say what’s on your mind! For that reason, Butinski Designs acknowledges the courageous, encourages the outrageous, and even applauds the portentous. Being a busy body ain’t so bad!”
———————————————————————————–
Stewart Lytle is a contributing writer for Newburyport-Today he can be reached for comment at stewart@newburyport-today.com
