On May 5, 2026, the women’s group of the Adventist Church in Tübingen gathered to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Heart Pillow campaign. The Women’s Ministries group meets once a month and is active within the volunteer network of the Adventist Welfare Organization at the Hope Center in Tübingen, and offers a variety of programs. After enjoying a delicious bread cake and tea, the group naturally got right to work filling more heart-shaped pillows designed to alleviate post-operative pain for breast cancer patients.
Irmgard Heberle was inspired by a report on Hope Channel about heart-shaped pillows for breast cancer patients to launch a project in her local women’s group in Tübingen, Germany. The proposal was received with enthusiasm, as the women were eager to help other women during a critical phase of their lives. The first batch of 80 pillows was presented to Ms. Christina Köhler of the Tübingen University Hospital on July 28, 2016. Since then, countless heart-shaped pillows have been donated to the Women’s Clinic at the University of Tübingen over the past 10 years, as they have never actually kept track of how many pillows they have made.