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Breast-cancer survivors celebrate at Pink Ribbon Tea
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SURVIVORS IN PINK: Geralyn Lucas, right, writer of the book and screenplay, “Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy,” talks with Patti McSuley of Boardman on Monday at the Pink Ribbon Tea at The Georgetown in Boardman. McSuley, who works at Regis Salon in Southern Park Mall, is a breast-cancer survivor and by coincidence, styled Lucas’ hair.
The speaker’s book became a Lifetime TV movie.
By Denise Dick
BOARDMAN — When doctors and nurses rolled Geralyn Lucas into the operating room for her mastectomy, she wore bright-red lipstick to announce herself.
She didn’t want to be an anonymous patient.
“I wore it as a symbol of hope,” Lucas said.
The author of a book and screenplay, “Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy,” was the speaker Monday at the 15th annual Junior League of Youngstown Pink Ribbon Tea at The Georgetown. She delivered a frank and funny speech about the disease, her surgery, recovery and survival.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the tea was for breast-cancer survivors.
JLY member Susan Berny originated the organization’s involvement with the Pink Ribbon Tea event. About 400 people attended Monday’s tea.
Lucas’ screenplay became a Lifetime movie of the same name and was nominated for an Emmy Award.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer at 27.
“I was never able to wear red lipstick before,” the author said.
It was too glamorous, she thought.
When Lucas awoke after surgery, her nurse asked, “‘What kind of lipstick are you wearing? It stayed on for 61‚Ñ2 hours, and I want some,’” she said. “It was such a small victory that it stayed on.”
At her first book appearance in New York City, only one person attended.
The woman, who drove more than five hours to hear Lucas, was crying, fearful of her own impending mastectomy.
The two women talked, and when that woman had her surgery, she wore red lipstick too — and clutched a copy of Lucas’ book as she was wheeled into the operating room.
The fact that Lucas’ story touched that one woman kept her going. She also introduced Patti McSuley, whom Lucas met Sunday.
“I was having a hair emergency,” Lucas said, referring to her arrival in the Mahoning Valley.
She called Regis Salon at Southern Park Mall and made an appointment. When McSuley, the stylist, approached, Lucas noted her hair and commented that she would like something similar.
McSuley, who just finished her chemotherapy sessions for breast-cancer treatment, was wearing a wig. Monday was her birthday, the first since her diagnosis, and Lucas urged her to come to the tea.
Lucas, a mother of a daughter, 10, and a son, 3, lives in New York City, formerly worked as an editorial producer at “20/20” and director of public affairs for Lifetime television. Her book has been translated into seven languages.