Friendship sparks health tech venture in Downtown Wenatchee

In the heart of Downtown Wenatchee, two best friends work in an emerging industry to help community members better understand their bodies and identify health issues at early stages. Taking their shared passion for helping people across the world, Sole Sisters Thermal Imaging brings affordable medical awareness to the Wenatchee Valley. 

Marian Leone-Lambert and Brandi Darnell, the founders, operators, and namesakes of Sole Sisters, use specialized heat-sensitive cameras to detect irregularities in the body. Though the process is often fast and simple, thermal imaging can detect the signs of a wide variety of early health conditions. 

“It’s an infrared camera,” Leon-Lambert shared, explaining the capabilities of the thermal imaging process. “And it reads temperature on the skin, which gives an indication of what’s going on inside the body. So it can show inflammation. It can show vascularity patterns. It can show some nerve issues.”

This wide range of visibility allows technicians to specifically identify the crucial early signs of life-threatening illnesses like breast and thyroid cancer. 

“And for women’s health, which is a lot of what we do,” she added, “it can show some of the precursors to breast cancer such as inflammation, such as neovascularity, which is when new blood supply is created in sort of an unusual way, because tumors need blood supply.”  

Co-founder Darnell agreed, further explaining the direct benefits that thermal imaging offers to those with breast cancer concerns. 

“This is a preventative and detection tool,” she commented. “So women can, especially if breast cancer runs in their family, they can get this done and see changes in their blood patterns which might indicate that their chances of cancer or something growing are at a higher risk. So it’s a proactive tool for women to use.”

Before starting their business in October of 2022, Leone-Lambert and Darnell met through their children, who shared a 1st-grade class. The two quickly bonded through their faith-based love of helping suffering communities, eventually traveling to Africa together on a mission. 

As they worked together to help those in need, the duo found their shared passion as well as a catchy new nickname. 

As Darnell explained, “We went to Uganda in 2019 and served at a place called Sole Hope where they work on feet. They make shoes for people, they take jiggers out of their feet. And so we became known as the Sole Sisters.”

Enjoying their work so deeply, the Sole Sisters refused to leave behind their passion for helping others. 

“And we loved it,” Darnell shared. “We developed a passion for serving in third-world countries and for underprivileged people. So, we came back, and we desperately wanted to serve here… and so it was not long after that when the [Washingtonian thermal imaging] practitioner, Lynn Chad, asked us if we wanted to take over and start our own thermal imaging business, and because we’d had a good experience with it and we wanted to serve, we jumped on it.” 

After extensive training and studying, the Sole Sisters established their business and began pursuing their mission of serving the local community. In doing this, they centralized much of their effort on providing crucial, comfortable, and welcoming options for women. 

Sole sister Darnell explained the importance of such options for women in the local community.

“Women’s breast health is our specialty,” she said, “because we feel like women need a safe place to go that doesn’t feel like a clinic but still works alongside conventional medicine.”

Additionally, Darnell expanded on the overall benefits they hope to provide with thermal imaging for all members of the community.

“What we love about thermal imaging is that it’s a way to help people get healthier before they’re too sick,” she revealed. “It’s proactive; we care about helping people from the core, and so spreading the word and getting people to see that there are other options outside of the box has been a challenge.” 

Though they take great pleasure in helping people find healthy medical options, the Sole Sisters especially love being able to connect directly with community members.

As Leone-Lambert explains, “Part of it is just connecting to people, hearing their stories… just being able to listen to people’s stories and connect to them and help them feel cared about.”

Darnell agreed with her sole sister, sharing one word that drives her passion in thermal imaging, “relationships.”

“Almost everybody that leaves gives us a big hug. We could schedule people back to back, and we don’t. We schedule an hour for each person because we want them to feel cared about. And we end up sharing their life with them, and they learn about ours.” 

In providing friendly, welcoming care for Wenatchee residents, the Sole Sisters hope to continue spreading their love for helping others, from Uganda all the way back to North Central Washington.

To learn more about Sole Sisters and their work in thermal imaging, visit their website at mbsolesisters.com. 

Will Nilles: (509) 731-3211 or will@ward.media