Feeling Beautiful Through Breast Cancer
“Cancer is really difficult because it robs you of your femininity,” says 40-year-old Nancy Lumb, a breast cancer survivor. “Look Good…Feel Better provides you with tools to keep you as close to your old self as possible.”

Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, Nancy was touring a chemotherapy room when she saw a Look Good…Feel Better pamphlet. She asked the nurse about it, looked it up online and signed up for a session with a local Look Good...Feel Better group. She hadn’t even started chemo yet. “They were really good at telling me what was going to happen and what to expect in terms of my appearance,” she recalls.

She learned how to take care of her skin as it got drier due to chemotherapy, how to put on fake eyelashes and how to recreate eyebrows. Nancy was especially thankful for the section on hair loss. She didn’t cry when she was diagnosed, or when she told her mother and her husband. But when she began to lose her hair, the floodgates opened. She was impressed with how comprehensive the tips were about dealing with baldness. “Not just wigs, but hats, bandanas and scarves!” she says.

One of the best benefits of the program, says Nancy, was the opportunity to meet other women battling cancer. She was able to tap into a support system to lean on through treatment and build friendships with women she’s still in touch with.

After a lumpectomy, five rounds of chemotherapy and 33 doses of radiation, Nancy has been cancer free for a year. She encourages every woman with cancer to get involved with Look Good…Feel Better. “They teach you what you can do to still appear as a healthy, vibrant person, even if your skin looks sickly,” she says, adding with a laugh, “Not to downplay the rest of it, but you also get all this wonderful free makeup.”

NEXT: Michelle Kostas learned how to deal with hair loss and help other women >>