Photograph by Robert Scheer
Gay Crawford (center), co-chair of the Smart Woman project, meets with volunteers, Cecilia Olkowski (left) and Kathy Kroll (right), chair of Courageous Kids, at the American Cancer Society.
By Cristy Shauck
According to the American Cancer Society, every woman is at risk of developing breast cancer. Nationwide, the Society predicts 184,300 new invasive breast cancer cases will be diagnosed in 1996. The disease will kill 44,300 women this year alone.
Twenty-two years ago, Saratoga resident Gay Crawford discovered a lump in her breast. Then the mother of an 11-month-old baby girl and a 2-year-old boy, Crawford sought a second opinion when her doctor said she needed a mastectomy.
"In those days, they did not do a biopsy; you just woke up from surgery and discovered that they had found cancer and already removed the breast," Crawford said.
The second doctor performed a biopsy and told Crawford the results did indeed indicate that she had cancer. Unlike her mother who had undergone a radical mastectomy just a couple of years earlier, Crawford had a modified radical mastectomy, which spared lymph glands and underlying muscle tissue.
Since her recovery, Crawford has volunteered for the American Cancer Society, which sent a representative from its Reach for Recovery program to help her get through the aftereffects of dealing with breast cancer and a mastectomy. Soon, she herself began comforting other women who were struggling to cope with the diagnosis of breast cancer.
"Then, it was virtually a death sentence," Crawford said. "Many of those women died."
Last January, American Cancer Society volunteer Shelly Barsanti, 45, discovered a lump during a routine breast self-exam and had a mammogram days later that showed nothing unusual. The doctor said to wait and observe before having a biopsy. The Monte Sereno resident didn't wait, and that may have saved her life. She saw a surgeon who performed a lumpectomy and told her that she had a malignant tumor. Barsanti had a mastectomy and is undergoing chemotherapy treatments that will end in the fall.
Seven weeks passed from the time Barsanti found the lump until she had the mastectomy. "I don't know if waiting that long will make a difference," she said. "I'm losing my hair because of the chemotherapy, but I feel lucky. Things are going well."
Crawford said that Barsanti's experience with her doctor is not uncommon and added that women must learn to be their own advocates and insist on having a mammogram and/or a biopsy when they discover a lump.
Early detection is the key to survival, Crawford said. Last year, she wrote a proposal requesting funding and volunteers for Smart Woman, a breast-cancer education project, from the Junior League of San Jose. The league provided $15,500, and 10 members received professional training to teach women about life-saving practices for detecting breast cancer early.
Penny Malloy and Saratoga resident Debbie Simon co-chair the project. "Both of my parents died of cancer," said Simon. "When the Smart Woman project came to the Junior League, I saw it as my chance to get involved with the American Cancer Society."
Simon, a paralegal at Ferrari, Olsen, Ottoboni and Bebb in downtown San Jose, said project members chose five corporations and 20 community groups to address, including the Fairmont Hotel, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, the Georgia Travis Center, Blue Hills School PTA and Sacred Heart Community Services.
Smart Woman volunteers present a slide program including the latest breast cancer information, including alarming statistics, and resources available through the American Cancer Society. They also ask the audience to fill out a pre- and post- presentation questionnaire which provides feedback for future education projects. And they provide breast models to allow people to feel the difference between normal tissue and a suspicious lump.
As an early-detection strategy, the American Cancer Society recommends monthly breast self-examination and a mammogram and a professional clinical breast exam regularly.
Options now available after detection include biopsy, lumpectomy (only the tumor mass is removed), mastectomy and reconstruction.
"Living near Stanford, we have access to the newer philosophies of treatment and care," Crawford said. "Today I probably would have had a lumpectomy and chemotherapy treatments. But I have no regrets. Stacy, the baby I feared I would never live to see through kindergarten, graduated from UCLA with a degree in neuroscience, and her brother David earned a degree in mechanical engineering."
Crawford said that breast cancer sometimes destroys a marriage, but it brought her and husband Roy closer together. "You couldn't ask for a better partner to go through this. We built on it rather than let it tear us apart."
Both Simon and Crawford say a cultural taboo against touching the female breast and language barriers make it difficult to convey their message to some women here in the area. Simon hopes that by training the staff at Sacred Heart, many of whom speak Spanish, they will reach a greater number of Latinas.
The American Cancer Society and the Junior League of San Jose will cosponsor A Smart Woman's Breast Health Forum at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose June 4. Actress Ann Jillian, a three-time Emmy nominee and Golden Globe winner, will share her experience with and recovery from breast cancer.
The noon luncheon costs $35 per person. Tickets are available from the American Cancer Society, 879-1045, ext. 170.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, May 22, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved