Ford's latest accessory: A special seat belt for breast cancer patients. How it came to be

Lynn Simoncini of Grosse Pointe Farms comes from a big Italian family and loves to cook.

She is a wife and mother who can often be found thrifting at flea markets, antique shops or the Salvation Army. She helps the unhoused. She takes in stray dogs. She feeds the hungry. And with her son’s departure for the University of Michigan, she is now an empty nester.

She has so many things in common with so many people, including her fight against a disease so common that most women accept the fact that they’ll one day get it — or be there to support a sister, daughter or best friend in their fight.

Simoncini doesn't call herself a survivor.

“I’m not through the woods yet,” she said. “I worry about whether I’m going to be here two or three years from now.”

As someone who knows cars and knows consumers, too, and understands the pain of breast cancer treatment and surgical recovery, Simoncini decided to take action that would result in a unique accessory designed by Ford Motor Co. that helps to alleviate pain caused by the cross-body strap seat belt.

Something so simple yet so impactful.

“I wanted something good to come out of this,” Simoncini said. “Cancer is just the worst thing that can happen to you.”

Simoncini gets paid to think up cool ideas for Ford as creative director at the international VML marketing and communications agency, which specializes in customer experiences. She could never have imagined working on a project inspired by physical trauma and sadness.

She has packaged all of the emotion involved in her breast cancer journey that began in 2022 to work with Emily Obert, Ford experience design director, to bring the specially designed seat belt to market.

On Tuesday, Ford unveils a website to make available the custom seat belt harness designed for the hundreds of thousands of breast cancer patients at zero cost.

All that’s required of a customer who needs it is payment of shipping and handling costs.

No more stuffed animals or hand towels needed

After a double mastectomy, Simoncini dreaded being in vehicles.

Recovering from surgery, she had to carry stuffed animals or couch pillows or hand towels to soften the fit of a vehicle's shoulder harness seat belt, which is required for safety.

“I love cars,” Simoncini said. “But you’re cut from armpit to armpit, and you have massive scars and incisions,” she said. “It started with a routine screening and I was called back for a biopsy. They discovered cancer and it already had spread. … After five months of chemotherapy, I had the double mastectomy. Then you have radiation. I lost all my hair. I did 14 rounds of chemo. I was pretty much sick every day last year.”

But she wouldn’t stop with her idea and the design, having graduated from the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit.

Chad Woolums, a creative agency partner who had worked beside Simoncini for seven years, immediately thought Simoncini's idea to create a soft, beautiful device that may be used in any vehicle was brilliant — and his writing helped bring the idea to life for the official pitch.

Ford signed off on the plan.

"I love that our manager didn't shut us down," Simoncini said. We work on Ford, it's our day job. But we have other ideas. Some stick. Some don't."

1 in 3 U.S. women will need this accessory

By May 2023, Obert was working with Simoncini on the heartfelt project — along with Woolums and another creative agency partner, Susan Mersch.

“When people are going through so much medically, we want to have one less thing for people to worry about — so they can focus on healing,” Obert said. “I learned a lot about breast cancer through this project.”

Her mother-in-law lost her mother to breast cancer as a child, and more recently a friend has just been diagnosed with the disease.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the U.S., except for skin cancer, according to the American Cancer Society website.

The organization estimates that in the U.S. in 2024:

• About 30% of all new female cancer will be breast cancer.

• About 310,720 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women.

• About 42,250 women will die from breast cancer.

Designed to be a gift, comfort

“It’s bad enough I’m bald and wearing a baseball cap. I didn’t want to put something in my car that said, ‘Look at me! I’ve got breast cancer!’” Simoncini said.

She worked on and off, through sickness and medical leave and worked from home while ill.

“We did a lot of prototypes and sketches,” Simoncini said.

Meanwhile, Woolums was privately motivated by the idea that he couldn’t find a gift for his longtime colleague when he wanted to show her support. He wanted something of high quality, that functions and is worth giving.

“People think that once they heal, they feel better, but the pain stays for a long time. You’re dealing with scar tissue issues," Simoncini said.

“I had chemo every month last year. When you have a medi(cal) port — a device about the size of a quarter that goes under the skin with a silicone tube that connects the device to the vein — that area stays tender for three to four days. The seat belt hits near that mediport area, near the collarbone.”

This foam-filled harness piece could also be helpful for heart surgery patients, she said.

The belt is made with leather usually used for vehicle seats, and the side that touches the body is made of a synthetic suede using recycled materials.

Product research included interviewing breast cancer survivors who had experienced the removal of breast tissue.

The SupportBelt is the first seat belt accessory that provides additional cushioning to relieve seat belt pressure on both the driver’s side and the passenger side, Ford said.

Key to the project at Ford? Making sure the designers worked closely with Ford engineers to make sure the new device met safety standards and didn't disrupt the effectiveness of the seat belt.

Need coverage on your car? Read our guide on Ford's warranty coverage at USA TODAY Homefront.

Survivor stories

I also know of the need to support breast cancer patients. I attended the funeral of an aunt who died of breast cancer, while another aunt survived cancer of the right breast; she had a mastectomy and then reconstructive surgery.

I've got friends who have faced the battle. I know them through the Great Lakes sailing and boating communities.

One is Cindy Porter, of Royal Oak, a retired commercial banker who had surgery on her left side 14 years ago and she remembers the stitches.

“I drove myself to work, went to the hospital for radiation every day for 37 treatments,” she said. “At the end, it looked like they took the sun and laid it on my boob. It was literally like fire.”

Porter endured a lumpectomy, chemo, radiation and five years of the Tamoxifen medication, which is used as a preventive measure. “It’s been 14 years. Survival began the day they took the tumor out.”

She said she is impressed by the Ford project.

“Ford has been amazingly caring with respect to breast cancer. As a large corporation, you feel like they care about people,” Porter said. “The Ford family, look at what they did with the (Michigan Central) train station. They have a desire to help the community. For that, I applaud them.”

The other friend is Jeanne Wilson of Port Charlotte, Florida, who fought the disease in 2009, ended up with a mastectomy on the left side of her body.

“Your side is tender, painful. You’re dealing with drainage tubes,” she said.

“It’s all where the seat belt shoulder strap goes. That’s where the tubes are going down your side. Then after you heal, if you have reconstruction surgery, it’s a longer process.”

Wilson, who when I spoke to her was headed up to northern Michigan in her Ford Maverick, said having a company acknowledge the pain women endure and try to help: "Well, it's just wonderful."

Creating a legacy

Simoncini said she is grateful for friends and family members who go through it all with women like her and remain strong. “My husband worked nights. And I was so sick at night. My kid is taking AP classes. He’s a jazz drummer. He was there every step of the way, helping me get through it. I was totally freaked out.”

Too many women know, she said. "It was a little shocking when I got the phone call. I was called back in for a biopsy."

It’s unimaginable that one in three women will get a breast cancer diagnosis and potentially have a need for the SupportBelt. It is intended to be available to patients, as well as those who love them.

These days, Simoncini continues focusing on how to help others. “Survivor is kind of a tough word for me.”

To order the device: Go to ford.com/supportbelt/

Phoebe Wall Howard, a Free Press auto reporter for nearly seven years, now writes a column on car culture, consumer trends and life that will appear twice monthly on Freep.com and in print. Those columns and others will appear at phoebewallhoward.substack.com. Contact her at phoebe@phoebehoward.com.

(This story was updated to fix a typo and add a link.)

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Free option from Ford will ease pain of seat belts for cancer patients