YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Tammy Calhoun took her mother to each doctor’s appointment and chemotherapy treatment while the older woman battled breast cancer.
Calhoun, of Niles, became a stickler about self-examination of her breasts and started getting annual mammograms in her 30s that led to regular ultrasound examinations.
“And I just prayed to God, sitting there watching her go through this, ‘Please God, don’t let this happen to me,’” she says. “But in that sense, I always said, ‘If I do get this, let me be half as strong as she was and I will get through this.’ So here I am.”
The Diagnosis
The mother of two adult daughters learned after an ultrasound and a biopsy in 2022 that she had occult breast cancer, a rare form that isn’t detected by self-exam or mammograms.
“It was awful,” Calhoun recalls. “It was like somebody just knocked the wind out of me.”
She experienced an array of emotions, with fear the most dominant.
“It was fear of not being here for my family and my friends and my day-to-day life,” she says.
Although doctors found no tumors in either breast, the disease was in Calhoun’s lymph nodes and she had 13 removed, followed by eight rounds of chemotherapy and 25 days of radiation.
She points to the care she received at the Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast Care Center, part of Mercy Health.
“They’re wonderful here,” Calhoun explains. “I can’t say enough good things about them.”
But she struggled with the effects of treatment. She has a friend who does her hair who agreed to shave Calhoun’s head so she wouldn’t have to watch her long, platinum blond locks fall out over time during chemo.
“My girlfriend shaved my hair and me and her just held each other,” she says. “I cried. She cried for me. It was traumatizing.”
Finding a Wig
She learned about Compassionate Wigs on U.S. Route 224 in Boardman and she and her daughter found one that resembled Calhoun’s natural color and style.
“I just cried because I felt like the old me was back,” she says.
Patti McSuley, a 16-year breast cancer survivor and a cosmetologist, started Compassionate Wigs in a room she rented in another salon. She soon learned the Mahoning Valley needed the service and moved into her own shop seven years ago. She gets referrals from the cancer centers in the area.
For some, insurance covers the cost of the wig. For those for whom it doesn’t and who have a financial hardship, a businesswoman in the community covers the cost.
McSuley says it’s satisfying work.
“I guess I didn’t really realize how important it was until I went through it myself and I just really love helping people,” she says.
When people come into the shop, they’re feeling defeated, knowing they’re going to lose their hair going through treatment. They worry they won’t find a wig that makes them feel attractive.
“But then when they can see how nice of a wig that they can get, it really changes everything about them,” McSuley says.
She also styles it for them, helping to achieve the look they want. And she teaches them how to care for it.
“It’s what I’m supposed to be doing,” she says.
Support
Calhoun received a lot of support during her battle with the disease. Like she was there for her mother, Calhoun’s husband, Mike, was there for her – for every blood draw, chemotherapy treatment and doctor’s visit.
“My husband and my family have been my rock,” Calhoun says. “My husband has been my angel.”
She also attends the Joanie’s Sisters breast cancer support group at the breast care center. The group also offers speakers and fun events for participants.
When she finished treatment, anxiety hit. She worried if the cancer would return and when. She knew she needed help and called Yellow Brick Place, where she connected with a mentor. It helps to talk to someone who’s been through the same thing, Calhoun explains. She and that woman remain close.
Yellow Brick Place, a nonprofit cancer support center on Canfield Road in Youngstown, helps people throughout the Mahoning Valley with all cancers but most clients have breast cancer.
All services are free. They offer wigs and scarves for those who lose their hair as well as the Your Beauty Program, where makeup artists teach makeup tips to women who lose their eyebrows and eyelashes. There are four support groups – one for caregivers, one for all cancers, one for multiple myeloma and one for prostate cancer.
Art sessions, Reiki massage, chair yoga, sound therapy, cooking and nutrition classes and library and online resources are available.
Kathleen Moliterno, executive director, says some people come and get their wig before their hair begins falling out so they know they’re ready. Others wait. But when a woman finds the right wig, a bit of magic happens, she says.
“For the most part, they just want to look in the mirror and feel like themselves again,” Moliterno adds.
Going through cancer and the treatment is difficult enough, and then a patient looks in the mirror and doesn’t recognize herself, she says. Most who come to Yellow Brick Place for a wig are frightened, she says, and staff take care to listen, answer questions and offer support. Each person leaves with the wig they select and a bag full of care supplies, information, cookbooks and other items.
“But the light that happens between when they walk in and when they leave is truly transformational,” Moliterno says. “It really is. It just makes you feel like a million dollars because you know that this is one big burden off of their shoulders.”
Yellow Brick Place is funded by grants, donations and fundraisers. The suite is designed with a homey flair to put people at ease – soft couches and chairs clustered in a living room setting, French doors, a kitchenette, soft lighting and wall art.
Some clients come to the center for a wig and don’t participate in any other programs or services.
“But the majority of people will come back for different programs, and there’s no limit,” the executive director says. “Once you’re part of our organization, you are welcome to come any time. Being part of that family and having gone through that, you’re valuable. Your information is valuable. And a lot of times you still need to have that connection with people.”
Making Connections
And a lot of people forge connections at Yellow Brick Place.
Moliterno started at the organization in May 2021 when a lot of services were still closed because of Covid. Her first program as executive director was chair yoga that fall.
Attendees shared stories, exchanged contact information and started a group chat. People needed the connection, she says.
“One person mentioned something and then the next thing, everybody’s talking and we’re all crying,” Moliterno says. “We always say that we cry a lot here but a lot of times it’s very happy tears.”
Calhoun says Yellow Brick Place was a big help to her.
“I would say to women, there are resources out there. You just have to use them,” she adds.
Not long after she finished treatment about three years ago, her first grandchild was born, a boy, Ryker.
“I always say he was my prize at the end of this,” she says.
Calhoun takes medication and continues to see her doctors but apart from some side effects from medication, she’s healthy.
Still, she believes a cancer journey is never over. It changes who you are. She learned how mentally, physically and emotionally strong she is. At the same time, she misses the person she used to be – someone more carefree.
But she likes the new version too. She used to go out a lot, but post-treatment she prefers to stay home. Time is more important to her, and she feels closer to God.
“It’s little things now where material things and other things used to be more important …,” Calhoun explains. “I’m happy with just staying home with my family and having everybody that I love around me.”
Pictured at top: Tammy Calhoun of Niles, a breast cancer survivor, stands in the courtyard outside the Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast Care Center in Youngstown.