[Posted Feb. 27, 2008]

Portsmouth Store Helps
Women In Cancer Recovery

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

     Fewer African Americans died from cancer from 1991 to 1995, according to National Institutes of Health records. Yet, there is still a scary and intimate side to a cancer diagnosis that LaShonda Ramsey helps women face.
      Whether it’s supplying a prosthesis after a mastectomy, fitting a wig after chemo, applying makeup or offering understanding and support, Ramsey has helped thousands of women get through a cancer diagnosis. It’s a season in a woman’s life, she said. So flowers decorate her office, some in bloom. Some are waiting to bloom.

LaShonda Ramsey

     “Once you receive a cancer diagnosis, the care should be personalized,” said Ramsey, a board certified fitter of osthetics and prosthetics who owns Creative Images in Portsmouth, which she opened in 2004. She is also a certified cosmetologist.
     “We provide many services, especially, to that person who does not have a support system,” Ramsey said. “So many women don’t know about the resources and services that are available after the breast is gone.”
      She is trained to fit artificial breasts and mastectomy bras. She is certified in lymphodemia prevention and education. She helps women apply makeup. She styles wigs. Most of her services, which can start as low as $150, are covered by most insurances.
      While cancer is the second leading cause of death in African American women—outranked only by heart disease—according to NIH records, fewer black women died from colorectal, gynecological and breast cancer after 1989.
Although the cancer survival rate for black women exceeded the survival rate for white women.
     This according to a Nov. 14, 1996 National Cancer Institute press release, cancer continues to strike many women in Hampton Roads, Ramsey said.
     “And the more informed and educated you are, the more that empowers you,” she explained. “We try to make sure that every hurdle you jump—there’s someone there with you. We constantly track on our clients and keep track of their surgeries and chemo treatments.
     “So you don’t get too depressed, because many women are already low. It is devastating to receive a cancer diagnosis.”
For Blacks beginning in the 1990s about 5.6 percent fewer Blacks died from cancer, compared to 1.7 percent fewer Whites, NHI records show.

      Moreover, black women are slightly less susceptible to breast cancer than white women, according to netwellness.org. “In any given year, 95 out of 100,000 African American women are diagnosed with breast cancer, compared to 112 out of every 100,000 white women. However, African American women are slightly more likely to develop breast cancer before age 50.”

LaShonda Ramsey makes an adjustment on prosthesis for mastectomy client. Photo by Alvin Swilley

      But the good news is that fewer women, everywhere, are being told they have cancer. The 1990s will be remembered as the decade when “we measurably turned the tide against cancer,” said Richard Klausner, M.D., the director of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, in a Nov. 14, 1996 press release.
      But why did female cancer rates start to decline in the 1990s? From 1991-1995, early detection and treatment saved many women’s lives. Then from 2001-2004, fewer doctors wrote fewer prescriptions for hormone replacement therapies, which caused the cancer rate to drop.
      As a result, the cancer death rate fell nationwide by nearly 8.6 percent in women 50 and older. Specifically, from 2001-2004, the number of prescriptions for Premarin and Prempro dropped from 61 million in 2001 to 21 million in 2004, according to an April 19, 2007 report in the New England Journal of Medicine, which linked the decline in breast cancer to doctors writing fewer HRT prescriptions.
     “Still, we don’t know all the causes of breast cancer,” said NCI director John E. Niederhuber, M.D. “Finding the simple ways, such as limiting HRT use to decrease breast cancer risk, is a step forward.”
       In Portsmouth, Ramsey is aware that more women are surviving a cancer diagnosis. “We’re getting better,” she said of the declining cancer rates. But we have to get the message out there. Get those exams and screenings done. Nobody wants to do them but if we get those cancers early and don’t ignore them, the survival rate is higher.”
       Still, some women do receive a cancer diagnosis. “And once you come face to face with a cancer diagnosis, you come face to face with what’s important,” Ramsey said. Priorities shift. But women still have lives to live. There are spouses, children, a career, and many other concerns.
       This is where Ramsey helps out. While she does not have hard data to support the number of women who have survived because she helped out, she does have many heartfelt thank-you cards and handwritten letters from cancer survivors who say she made the difference.
She meets some cancer patients while working as a volunteer with the American Cancer Society’s “Look Good Feel Better” program. She meets others at health fairs and seminars.
     “The first thing a woman with a cancer diagnosis should do is make the call to me,” she advises. “That’s often the hardest step.” Chemo treatments frequently cause hair loss all over the body. So you can be fitted for a personalized wig weeks before treatment begins.
       You can learn how to apply makeup over lost eyebrows. And even though prosthesis are sold at department stores in the mall, who wants to buy one there? she asked.
      “We educate and explain your options,” Ramsey explained. “When you are a woman dealing with cancer, it is personal. That’s what we do. We deal with personal issues.
      “We have all nationalities, races, and all walks of life. All women need a support system and care. I feel it is a sisterhood of sorts,” she said. “There is hope. You are not alone. Even though you’re going through a situation that is out of control, we help you regain control.”
       Common cancer symptoms include a lingering cough, a lump in the breast that changes, or a discharge from the nipple. Look for changes in bowel habits. Sores on the skin that do not heal. Difficulty or pain while urinating.

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