Handbag aids cancer patients

During a month-long isolation after a bone marrow transplant, nine-year-old Yali Derman made her first purse out of bandanas.

Eleven years later, the Nursing sophomore’s most recent design under her own trademark — the Yali’s Carry On peacock tote ­— has raised $67,000 to benefit the construction of a creative arts playroom in the Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Derman was first diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia when she was four years old. At the age of nine, she had a recurrence that was more severe than the first.

Her brother, Benji, donated bone marrow in an experimental treatment for a transplant, which left Derman immunosuppressed and consequently isolated in the hospital for a month and at home for the next year.

Derman’s first purses, which she gave to the nurses treating her in the hospital, were made of the paisley bandanas she wore after treatment left her hairless.

“I was rebellious in that I wanted to transform this cliche, classical experience [of being a cancer patient] into something different,” she said.

“What Yali went through could have left her speechless,” her mother, Carol Rosenberg, said. “Creativity helped her find a transcendent and victorious voice.”

Derman went on to design a handbag with Kate Spade through the Make-A-Wish Foundation in 2007 and created the first bag under her own label in high school.

The name of the label — Yali’s Carry On — is based on Derman’s wish that anyone who has suffered a traumatic experience would have the strength to move on in same way she did, Rosenberg said.

Over last year’s winter break, Derman sat down with a Sharpie pen and “just started creating.” What emerged was a peacock design whose feathers were made of paisleys — “a modern interpretation of the bandana,” she said.

The hearts on top of the peacock’s head emphasize the support of love and family, she added. “Cancer is really a family disease. Everyone has to cope with it, get through and rearrange their lives to make things work.”

What happened next was a combination of “luck and determination,” she said.

Using her self-taught Adobe Illustrator skills, Derman was able to design a three-dimensional image of the bag and have a prototype made.

She sent a video explaining her story to Saks Fifth Avenue, which agreed to sell her bags at its Chicago and Highland Park, Ill., and Bala Cynwyd, Pa., locations, with all proceeds going to the nonprofit Kindness Is Doing Something Special for Kids. “I was beaming” after hearing the news, Derman said.

On the night Derman’s bag launched at her hometown branch at Highland Park in March, she raised $60,000. She has since raised $7,000 and is more than halfway toward her goal of $100,000.

Nursing sophomore Hannah Simons said she is “so impressed” when she sees roommate Derman on the news or on the phone working on advertising for the bags. “[Her business] takes a lot of energy.”

Derman plans to continue designing throughout her life, but “she is really passionate about pediatric oncology, which she has a huge connection to,” Nursing sophomore Candace Freeman — who takes classes with Derman — said.

Derman’s parents are both physicians, but Rosenberg understands why her daughter has chosen nursing as a career path. Both artists and nurses are “intense visionaries and dynamic creative thinkers,” she said.

“Your body doesn’t let you remember,” Derman said. “But the illness changed me for the better.”

“She knows when things are wrong without you having to tell her,” Simons said. “She is compassionate and has that spark in her … because of what she went through.”

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