Laughter sustains breast cancer survivor

About 300 breast cancer patients and survivors
attended Monday’s event.

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

LIBERTY — “Laughter is the prescription for a cure” of breast cancer, said Christine Clifford Beckwith, main speaker at the 13th annual Pink Ribbon Tea.

Some 300 breast cancer patients and survivors attended Monday’s tea, guests of the Junior League of Youngstown, whose sustaining members sponsor the event.

“I can’t change the fact that I got breast cancer. But I can change my attitude and choose to go forward with my life. My strength comes from my humor,” said Beckwith, a humorist, author, professional speaker and nearly 13-year survivor of breast cancer.

Today Beckwith, of Minnesota, is president and chief executive officer of The Cancer Club, which produces humorous and helpful projects for people with cancer. Before her bout with cancer, she was senior executive vice president for The SPAR Group, an international marketing firm in New York, where she was once the top salesman in the retail services industry, having accounts with Kmart, Toys “R” Us, Procter & Gamble and AT&T.

Her experience

Beckwith said she prayed that she would not get the disease that caused her mother’s death in her early 40s ... but she did.

She found the lump during routine self-examination in December, had surgery in January, and then began chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

“I had a luxurious head of curly hair and I thought it would come back the same,” said Beckwith, author of “Not Now, I’m Having a No Hair Day” and other books such as “Our Family Has Cancer, Too,” written for children.

Instead, her hair came back gray and thick and straight.

“But, I have to tell you, it is good to be able to say ‘I’m having a bad hair day,’” she told the audience, who laughed in understanding.

Another survivor

Among the survivors in the audience was Myra Stanley, 65, of Youngstown, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2002 and was attending her fourth Pink Ribbon Tea.

She had a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery that became infected. She said it is still giving her problems. She went on disability from her job as a licensed practical nurse at The Greenbriar on South Avenue.

“Everyone in my immediate family [parents and siblings] died of cancer,” but she said she is a Christian and has never asked “Why me?”

“I take one day at a time,” said Stanley, who with her husband, Joseph, has a son, Sekou, and a daughter, Seleka, and a grandson.

Stanley said the majority of the women who attend the tea have breast cancer, and because they have that in common, they understand what the others have gone through.

“I look forward to coming each year,” she said.

The No. 1 piece of advice I can give is to research all the possibilities, said Beckwith, who said she is not only grateful to be here but lucky to be here.

“It’s unfortunate people still think of cancer as something you die from. I think of myself as a healthy person who had cancer,” she said.

alcorn@vindy.com