Look Good … Feel Better Program fights cancer head on

Cancer is so limited —

It cannot cripple love,

It cannot shatter hope,

It cannot corrode faith,

It cannot destroy peace,

It cannot kill friendship,

It cannot suppress memories,

It cannot silence courage,

It cannot invade the soul,

It cannot steal eternal life,

It cannot conquer the Spirit.

— Anonymous

Many of us know the power a positive attitude can have when battling disease. But it can be difficult to keep that upbeat outlook when undergoing physically and emotionally draining cancer treatments. Experiencing hair loss, skin changes, or even the loss of breasts or other tissue can sink even the most optimistic of spirits.

The American Cancer Society's Look Good … Feel Better program helps raise those spirits through one of the least expected of treatments — the beauty treatment.

Radiation, chemotherapy, surgeries, repeat biopsies, can all take their toll on a patient's appearance, making it seem impossible for them to put their best face forward. Look Good … Feel Better is designed primarily for women undergoing treatment for any type of cancer, including breast cancer, and focuses on rebuilding self-confidence and improving quality of life.

The no cost program consists of two-hour classes, taught by trained aesthetician and cosmetologist volunteers who help groups of women experiencing appearance-related side effects from cancer treatments and procedures.

Participants are taught beauty tricks of the trade, including the use of wigs, turbans, cosmetics, breast forms and prostheses, and other products.

Each participant receives a complimentary kit including $300 or more in beauty products.

In addition to the knowledge and tools gained in the class, the program is a great way for women to meet others from within the community who truly understand what they're going through.

The classes are a way to find much needed support and friendship in a positive and uplifting setting.

The goal is to help women find beauty solutions to perk up their appearance that realistically work with their schedules.

Sagle resident Helen Tapp, a registered aesthetician, has been instrumental in promoting the Look Good … Feel Better program in our area.

"I had first gotten involved with Look Good … Feel Better in the 1980s in California, and saw what a huge difference it made in the lives of women undergoing cancer treatment there," Tapp said in a recent interview.

A few years after moving to Idaho, Tapp got involved in the program here, which had been started by late Sandpoint resident Heather Gibson at Community Cancer Services. Tapp is now a regional trainer for program volunteers, and is even more passionate about the benefits of the program. "Just getting together with other women going through the same thing and having a good time — it makes such a big impact on their outlook."

Tapp should know. Her life, too, has been touched by cancer. Cancer — the disease, the diagnosis, the treatments — is a journey, but not one we have to go through alone. As the poem above states, cancer is limited. It cannot kill friendship nor can it cannot conquer the spirit. And, thanks to programs like Look Good … Feel Better, it cannot steal our self-confidence.

The Look Good … Feel Better program needs a few more volunteers to help teach in our area. If you're interested, or are a cancer patient wanting more information regarding the program, please call Helen Tapp at (208) 263-9723, or e-mail her at hjtapp@yahoo.com.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It is imperative that women over the age of 40 get a mammogram every year. If caught early, the survival rate for breast cancer is better than ever before.

New treatments and technology have greatly improved both patient options and outcomes. Monthly breast self-examinations are important for women of all ages.

Download a free breast self-exam card from the Susan G. Komen Foundation at www.komen.org, or ask your physician for exam instructions.