Looking good, feeling better

March 06--FRMC helps cancer patients stay beautiful with quarterly skin and makeup class

FAIRMONT -- Now that she's finished chemotherapy, Donna Slamen wants to keep her skin and hair healthy as her body recovers.

Going through this treatment for ovarian cancer, Slamen realized she would need to take precautions when it came to making a healthy recovery.

"Your skin changes and your hair grows back different and you don't think about being in the sun with no hair," Slamen said. "You can get sunburnt because your skin is really sensitive. Spring and summertime is coming up and you might go outside and not wear a hat, and you may not realize that you should probably have something on to protect it."

On Monday, the American Cancer Society supplied chemo patients like Slamen with beauty kits at Fairmont Regional Medical Center (FRMC), to help give them the looks they want while they recover.

"It's a quarterly class, we have one a quarter," Tricia Julian, director of oncology services at FRMC, said. "We usually have between eight and 12 people which is very well attended."

Julian led a group of patients both current and recovering in teaching them how to take care of their skin and how to apply makeup while doing so. The patients were also supplied with donated wigs, and were shown a video by the ACS detailing the end result that the Look Good, Feel Better program could have.

"It's a very helpful class. We see people bond a lot through this, talk to each other and laugh through it," Julian said.

Julian was later joined by stylists from Fairmont beauty boutique Eye Candy, which she has cooperated with in the program before.

Julian mentioned the resulting confidence seen after the women's transformation as the most rewarding aspect of the class, watching them go from uncomfortable in their skin to smiling in the mirror.

"We've had people come to the class who were considering giving up on treatment because they just felt so abnormal," she said. "They come to the class, hear other ladies talk about the same thing, and we've had that happen more than once where a patient has decided to keep going."

"We really do help them look good and feel better; it's a very descriptive name."

Slamen recommended the class before she even took it, mentioning the support of other people as important to the treatment and recovery process.

"I would try the class," Slamen said. "The more you're around people, especially other people that have been through what you have been going through, it's a lot better because they understand. I say get and do as much as you can when you're able to."

Email Eddie Trizzino at etrizzino@timeswv.com and follow him on Twitter at @eddietimeswv.

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