SISTERS IN ARMS : Breast Cancer Survivors Find, at Long Last, a Place to Tell It Like It Is

Who in the ‘hood do you ask about breast cancer? As usual with health issues from heart disease to AIDS, what’s labeled true for the larger population is assumed true for all. I took my question to a session of the Women of Color Breast Cancer Survivor Support Project, a group for African American women. I got my ears blistered:

“Doctors are insensitive. They’re the issue that started this group.”

* “We face discrimination and neglect. You must insist on information. These doctors don’t like it when they have to explain and get real surly when you ask questions.”

* “They never gave me any educational materials.”

* “My doctor said my examination was in-con-clusive although my tumor had doubled in size at 2.5 centimeters, which is second-stage. He told me to GO HOME, WAIT and WATCH IT!”

* “I told my oncologist, ‘I can feel it!’ He said nothing.”

* “I was very depressed. I didn’t need a psychiatrist. I needed a support group.”

* “Our women are diagnosed in the later stages and have a higher death rate.”

* “My OB-GYN saw it and remained silent.”

* “Don’t trust general practitioners, no matter what color they are.”

* “My tumor had got so large it had burst and was running. I lost a breast and a lung. Get a second opinion, a third if necessary.”

* “We tend to be given the strongest medicines without necessarily needing them. Without any consideration as to what they might do to us.”

* “Our cultural background has put us in the background.”

* “We’re almost totally ignored by every major newspaper and organization.”

* “To talk about us is felt to be too morbid. But we’re positive--we’re about living.”

* “We have children and landlords to feed. If all I had to cope with was breast cancer, I would be fine.”

* “What you do is you put it on the list and you deal.”

* “ They don’t understand the stress, how we’re carrying three to four loads.”

* “It’s hard for us--we’re working- and professional-class women. So you can imagine how tough it is for sistuhs in the hard-core ghetto.”

* “When you go to a group that’s not ethnically sensitive, in their neighborhoods, you find them dominated by whites who do not understand ‘waiting on the check.’ ”

* “Little old white ladies are nice but can’t relate to how I responded. I was angry, real emotional when I found out: ‘They’re gonna mutilate me!’ ”

* “There was this 72-year-old, a 35-year survivor who saw my short hair and said, ‘That’s OK, you don’t have much to lose anyway.’ ”

* “After speaking to an American Cancer Society rep, most of the support groups they refer you to, ‘wellness clinics,’ are located way out.”

* “Gotta get them tears out . . . gotta cry.”

* ‘Going home to an empty house--it’s very scary.”

* “Most of us are abandoned by our men. They’re so self-centered.”

* “My boyfriend, a cancer doctor, didn’t contact me anymore.”

* “My family didn’t make me feel isolated.”

* “You are still a woman even if both breasts are cut off.”

* “My life turned around when I found this group.”

The facts are as strong as the feelings. A study analyzing breast cancer in L.A. County from 1981-87 found that while black women contracted the disease at lower rates than non-Latino women, they had a lower survival rate (63% compared to 75%).

The Women of Color support group is more than 100 members strong, and despite a funding deficit, has branches in Carson, Compton, Pomona and slated for San Diego. Initially sponsored by the National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer-Western Region, the group now has headquarters provided by Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, and volunteers answer the phones (213-418-0627 or 310-532-5128). Say executive council members P.J. Viviansayles and Nettie Almada: “We’re on the move. We consider this a victory!”