Making A Difference in Your Community : Help Bring Out the Beauty of Cancer Patients

With a couple of hours, some wigs and makeup, Luisa Toldi and Chrissy Lingua can brighten the lives of cancer patients.

“You try to help them see what you can see,” said Lingua, a volunteer with Glendale Adventist Medical Center’s a “Look Good, Feel Better” program in which cancer patients learn to combat the effects of hair loss, dry skin and discoloration caused by their treatments.

“You try to get people to do their best with what they have and not focus on the bad,” Lingua said.

Both women are licensed cosmetologists who volunteer at the hospital to lead makeup sessions every month or so. Lingua’s specialty is hair, and she helps patients cut wigs into fashionable and natural styles.

Toldi specializes in skin care and corrective makeup.

“I have never seen anybody go through this program who has not come out chattering and feeling good about themselves,” Toldi said.

Although what Toldi and Lingua do is entirely cosmetic, the positive feelings they inspire play a big role in the recovery process, according to hospital studies of cancer patients.

Although men can join the “Look Good, Feel Better” program, the patients who have attended have been almost all females, from a 16-year-old up to women in their 70s.

Some of the women are willing to experiment with a new look and try different styles, although they still tend to stay close to their original hair color, Lingua said. Some find they need a different style because the cancer treatments have changed the shapes of their faces, she said.

One woman in her 50s, who was dropped off by her husband, had no hair or eyebrows. Two hours later, with a wig, makeup and eyebrows recreated by pencil, she had been dramatically transformed.

“Her husband just said, ‘Wow, You look great,’ ” Toldi said. “That just made her day.”

But as the women learn about moisturizers, and ways of covering skin discolorations, something else happens, Toldi said.

“When they leave they feel like they’ve had time to accomplish something,” Toldi said. “They can know that there are other people out there suffering the same things they are.”

That supportive environment in the classes also is a big morale booster in fighting the disease, Toldi said, and encourages the women to be more active instead of hiding at home.

“They have a good time,” said Lingua. “A bunch of women standing around a table and talking. You can’t go wrong.”

For Toldi, the program has given her hope that if she does get cancer, she may fare better than her mother, who died of the disease years ago.

“We’d all stand around and cry as my mother lost her hair,” Toldi said. “Now, I myself would be better equipped to face what she had to.”

Licensed cosmetologists are trained for the program by the American Cancer Society, which also donates the wigs and makeup. But other volunteers are also needed to assist with patients that have trouble seeing or moving.

The next session of the “Look Good, Feel Better” program is scheduled for June 12 from 2 to 4 p.m. Reservations must be made in advance.

For more information, call the volunteer office of Glendale Adventist Medical Center at (818) 409-8057. The session is free.

Other volunteering opportunities:

The Sunair Foundation, which funds medical care for children, needs volunteers for gift shops at Encino Hospital and Midway Hospital. No previous experience is necessary. Volunteers are required to work four hours a day, once a week.

For more information call (818) 345-3862.

Getting Involved is a weekly listing of volunteering opportunities. Please address prospective listings to Getting Involved, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, 91311. Or fax them to (818) 772-3338.