BEACH LAKE, PA — Peg Pearsall knows about cancer.

She had breast cancer back in 1991, and then gave back to the community by running a Look Good Feel Better (LGFB) program at Wayne Memorial Hospital for 23 years. 

“I noticed a lump in my breast,” Pearsall said. “This one felt hard.” 

Unfortunately, she was also going through some very stressful changes and put off dealing with the lump. 

Two years later, she finally felt able to address the problem. 

The doctor she consulted diagnosed breast cancer “and was going to remove the breast,” she said. 

Instead, she got a second opinion at Sloan Kettering in New York City. 

“Always get a second opinion,” Pearsall said. “Always.” 

At Sloan Kettering, the doctors took all the lymph nodes under her arm and recommended radiation. She was there for nine days total after the lymph-node surgery.

But then she came home for radiation, and encountered one of the problems of cancer treatment here: distance.

“I lived in Damascus by the school then,” she said. “I drove to Scranton’s Mercy Hospital—now it’s the Regional Hospital of Scranton—five times a week.”

Each treatment was very short, and the course of radiation went on for six weeks, she said. Sixty miles one way, 60 miles back. In the summer, in a two-door car.

Complicating life further was that she was a single mother with three kids, and she had to work too.

“I was a hairdresser then,” she said. 

It wasn’t easy. It was summer, it was hot in the car, and she said she prayed, “Oh Lord, if you get me through this, I’ll get a car with four doors and air conditioning.”

And, she said, afterward “that was the first thing I did.”

Although it sounds as though gratitude was the first, most powerful emotion. For surviving, for her kids getting through it, for the care she received, and for the chance to give back.

“When I was in Sloan Kettering, two days after surgery, I went to Look Good Feel Better. It was so nice to be able to fix yourself up.”

Various cosmetics companies would donate supplies, which became kits handed out to each participant. 

And of course, her career as a hairdresser made her a perfect fit for the group’s message after she completed her treatment.

Pearsall brought the program to Wayne Memorial Hospital in Honesdale, PA. 

“I had so much fun doing it,” she said. “We had wigs donated. Even the people who didn’t use makeup—I’d say, ‘I just want you to have a bit of a glow.’” It made a difference. 

Meanwhile, she and her family took cancer screenings seriously. That’s the way to catch the disease early. 

Cancer again

Those regular screenings proved their worth when in the early ‘00s, Pearsall developed colon cancer. A gut resection followed. “They went through my belly button,” she said. “And then I ate a meal.” 

Cancer treatment, even for colon cancer, is not what it used to be back in the horror-story days. For one thing, medications mitigate the side effects. One’s doctor can explain the side effects from both treatment and medication.

“I had six months of chemo,” Pearsall said. “I went to the gym; I worked. And I did what the doctors told me.” 

The only time she felt unwell was when she didn’t take the anti-nausea medicine. 

There are plenty of ways for patients to give back. You can volunteer for organizations like the American Cancer Society or Susan G. Komen, or join a local group such as the one connected with the show “Showing Up: Perspectives on Cancer.” 

Breast cancer changed everything. It can make life harder, especially while you go through treatment. But Pearsall survived cancer twice. “I’m still here,” she said. “I’m glad I did my checkups.” If something doesn’t feel right, “get it checked out. Be aware of your body. Get a second opinion,” she said. “Listen to what they tell you.”