Look Good...Feel Better program brings makeover to cancer patients

• When Kim Bourdages of DeKalb was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, she was concerned about losing her hair during chemotherapy, so she went to Patty Pumfrey at Unique Concepts Salon for help in choosing a wig.
• That's when Pumfrey told Bourdages about a program to help women with cancer deal with the visible effects of the disease.
• "At first, I was like a dog going to the vet," Bourdages recalled with a laugh.
• She was skeptical, but reluctantly agreed to attend a session of "Look Good ...
• Feel Better," a national program sponsored in part by the American Cancer Society.
• "I called a girlfriend who had already had breast cancer, but had never gone to a 'Look Good ...
• Pumfrey said feeling attractive gives some women the positive lift they need to fight the disease.
• When the subject is cancer, the attitude is often solemn.
• "Patty's sessions are very open," said Andrea Diedrich, patient education coordinator at Kishwaukee Community Hospital.
• The 90-minute sessions are broken into three segments: skin care and makeup, wig care and nail care.
• "We can show them how to put eyelashes and eyebrows on, how to wear a wig or not wear a wig, whatever makes them comfortable," Pumfrey said.
• "Until I got chemo, I didn't realize how devastating it could be to your skin," she said.
• Each participant receives a free kit of donated beauty products to take home.
• "I had had surgery, but hadn't started chemo yet, and I sat next to a lady who'd had chemo but no surgery yet."