‘92 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION : A Role Model for Women With Cancer : Delegate: Huntington Beach Councilwoman Linda Moulton-Patterson uses convention spotlight to emphasize that breast cancer is survivable.

When Linda Moulton-Patterson stepped onto the stage during the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, a million women marched up there with her.

In November, 1990, just days after she won her first election to the Huntington Beach City Council, Moulton-Patterson was found to have breast cancer. She was shocked that it came without warning. And she was scared.

Today, one of her strongest memories of the experience is the advice she received from another breast cancer survivor just before she started her chemotherapy treatment.

“She said, ‘You know when you march in there that first time, millions of women will be marching in with you,’ ” Moulton-Patterson recounted Tuesday. “I was scared, really scared about that first chemo treatment. . . . That made me very strong.”

On Monday night, Moulton-Patterson was one of 21 Democratic convention delegates who stood in front of 5,000 fellow delegates. Behind her was a portrait of herself on a two-story-tall video screen. The ceremony, called “People First,” was intended to underscore the party’s dedication to a variety of people and issues by profiling some of its delegates.

Moulton-Patterson was introduced as a breast cancer survivor who wants a President who is interested in women’s health issues. She was joined on the platform by a teacher, a fireman, a senior citizen and a variety of other representative individuals.

“It was real emotional,” she said Tuesday at an atrium cafe on 42nd Street in the convention city. “I felt a lot of strength and commitment to be part of a real positive change. The energy, the enthusiasm; it was inspiring.”

Moulton-Patterson, 49, whose husband, Jerry Patterson, was Orange County’s last Democratic congressman in 1984, said she considers herself lucky because her cancer was diagnosed early.

She went to the doctor for a routine checkup and was incredulous when he found a lump. It was the day before Thanksgiving, 1990.

“I was on top of the world, feeling great, and never thought anything was wrong with me,” she said. “And then, boom. It was just devastating.”

Because it was discovered early, Moulton-Patterson said doctors were able to remove the lump. But for the next six months, she endured more than a dozen treatments of chemotherapy, followed by seven weeks of daily radiation treatment.

The procedure was physically and mentally stressful, partly because the side effects of chemotherapy can be so severe. The drugs left her fatigued and sometimes nauseated. And when the radiation made her hair fall out, she wore a wig.

But through it all, she never missed one of the weekly, televised City Council meetings. And in the midst of the treatment, Moulton-Patterson launched a campaign to win appointment to the California Coastal Commission. She was seated on the powerful state board, which regulates coastal properties, last July.

“I’ve always been someone who, when I make up my mind that I want something, I really work for it,” she said.

Moulton-Patterson, who also teaches politics at Cypress College and served seven years on the Huntington Beach Union High School District Board of Trustees, said she has decided to talk about her cancer survival so she can lobby for better health care legislation and, particularly, to offer hope for other women afflicted with the condition.

“I don’t want anyone to think I did anything special,” she said. “But if being a public person I can help anyone else, that’s why I’m talking about it. If I can help one woman, it’s worth it.”

While she was being treated, Moulton-Patterson said she grew increasingly concerned that indigent women with the same condition could suffer the additional horror of a patchwork health care system at county hospitals.

“I thought many times about these women,” said Moulton-Patterson, who has two daughters, two step-daughters and recently became a grandmother. “It’s a scary time for you and you want the very best care you can get. If I were a poor woman without health insurance, the outcome could have been very, very different.”

Moulton-Patterson said it has been a long time since she has been as inspired by a national political candidate as she is for party nominee-to-be Bill Clinton. She likes the Arkansas governor’s economic plan, his environmental positions, his support for abortion rights, and she is particularly happy about his comments on health care for women.

As a result, she wanted to participate in his nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

“Women’s health care has not been the priority that it should be,” she said. “The leadership comes from the top, and you need a President to make a difference.”