THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 16, 1994 TAG: 9410140778
SECTION: HAMPTON ROADS WOMAN PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
I think there's a feeling among older women that it's not going to happen to me. That I'm too old for this. And they're also thinking about other things; they're not seeing an ob/gyn on a regular basis; they've got other things going wrong with their bodies.
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She had regular mammograms each year. Even so, it was six months since her last mammogram when she found the lump. But it didn't show up on the mammogram she rushed to take, and her doctor said to wait and watch it.
Six months later, when it did appear on the X-ray, and a biopsy showed it was malignant, Marilyn Wakeman, now 55, had one thought: ``Get it out of me. Cut it off.'' She had a mastectomy.
The experience made her political. For the first time in her life, she'd found a cause worth fighting for. Now, her favorite piece of jewelry is a tiny pin in the shape of a twisted ribbon - a permanent evocation of the pink ribbon she wears during October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
She's active in the Virginia Breast Cancer Foundation, a lobbying group based in Richmond; a volunteer with Reach for Recovery, which counsels women who have just had mastectomies; and a volunteer at the Discovery Shop, a thrift store operated by the American Cancer Society in Virginia Beach.
Her mission: to get the message out to women about the three-pronged attack they must take against this disease. ``Mammogram, breast self-examinations and see your doctor regularly,'' she says, her small fist tightly clenched atop the informational papers on her kitchen table.
Her 25-year-old daughter watches from the counter. ``Yeah, mom,'' she says. ILLUSTRATION: GARY C. KNAPP COLOR PHOTO
MARILYN WAKEMAN
KEYWORDS: BREAST CANCER by CNB