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When Kathy Walker began remedy for pancreatic cancer, her hair started off slipping out. A nonprofit termed Wonderful You helped Walker feel like herself again. (Chris Clark | Well being Defeat)
“When they say, ‘Beautiful You,’ which is what it tends to make you experience like,” Walker mentioned. “It would make you feel like a lady again.” (Chris Clark | Health Beat)
Gorgeous You stylist Rebekah Pokorzynski remembers the initial time she equipped a wig for Walker. “She just blossomed,” Pokorzynski explained. “She was back. That was her.” (Chris Clark | Wellbeing Beat)
Walker brightens when she describes how she spends most of her days: encouraging elevate her twin 3-12 months-old grandchildren, Kloe and Bobby, who maintain her relocating. (Chris Clark | Wellbeing Beat)
Walker, 67, acquired about the Attractive You soon after her boyfriend, John Van Wyck, had talked to a golfing buddy whose wife went there for the duration of most cancers remedy. (Chris Clark | Health Beat)
Together 14 years, Walker and Van Wyck get pleasure from an active retirement. In the summers they ride their Harley Davidson motorcycle. In the winters they visit their area in Florida. (Courtesy photograph | John Van Wyck)
Walker gets chemotherapy at Lemmen-Holton Most cancers Pavilion three Fridays in a row, with the fourth Friday off. Amid it all, her favourable mindset shines by way of. (Chris Clark | Overall health Conquer)
A single working day, Walker’s granddaughter, Kloe, reported, “Nana, your hair is falling out.” Walker stated that her drugs was the result in. “Don’t be concerned,” Kloe replied. “We’ll acquire you some hair.” (Chris Clark | Health and fitness Defeat)
Lovely You also offers Vera Bradley chemotherapy baggage with things this sort of as hand lotion, together with paraffin wax solutions and scalp massages. It delivers that small a little something more. (Chris Clark | Wellbeing Conquer)
Walker and Van Wyck keep in mind the 1st visit to Stunning You as a turning place. “When she set that wig on, (Van Wyck) reported, ‘I have not viewed a smile like that in a prolonged time,’” Walker claimed. (Chris Clark | Health Conquer)
“They’re in the fight of their lifetime,” Pokorzynski stated of the clients who appear in. “When they check with how a great deal a hat or wig is and I explain to them it is free, they often get a tear in their eye.” (Chris Clark | Overall health Beat)
For the duration of her chemotherapy treatments, Walker generally would make a issue to notify other girls about Attractive You. “It helps make you feel so considerably much better,” she explained. “I assume: Be upbeat. You have to be.” (Chris Clark | Well being Beat)
At initial, Kathy Walker seemed a little bit hesitant when she walked into the salon on the third ground of Spectrum Wellbeing Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion.
She wore a baseball cap above her extensive blond hair, which had began falling out in clumps simply because of chemotherapy.
“You could see the sweetness in her eyes,” claimed Rebekah Pokorzynski, a stylist at Wonderful You, a nonprofit that caters to women of all ages and girls undergoing most cancers treatment method.
As Walker eased herself into a chair, Pokorzynski started to perform her magic.
She freshened up the finishes of Walker’s hair, which continue to attained down below the shoulders. Then Pokorzynski pulled out some colour swatches and wig samples.
“She just blossomed,” Pokorzynski reported.
They uncovered a great match.
“It was a God factor,” Pokorzynski said. “We slid that in excess of her remaining golden locks and … she was back again. That was her.”
Walker, of Muskegon, Michigan, thought she’d never use a wig. But that altered as quickly as she looked in the mirror.
“When they say, ‘Beautiful You,’ that’s what it helps make you really feel like,” Walker said. “It will make you really feel like a female once again.”
Considering that 2014, Lovely You has been pampering women and ladies going through cancer therapy. Founder Pam Westers, who owns Profile Salon in Comstock Park, Michigan, started by providing Beautiful You Mondays at her shop on Alpine Avenue, the place gals and women could get their hair shaved prior to currently being fitted for a wig.
They also get to love haircuts, pedicures, manicures and massages, with stylists and massage therapists volunteering their time.
Purchasers could constantly seem forward to a light contact and camaraderie.
Even if they arrived anxious, “they depart laughing and crying with pleasure,” Westers claimed.
Gorgeous You grew so well known, Westers rented a next space up coming to Profile Salon. In addition to the unique treatment method on Mondays, girls can make individual appointments. Individuals going through active most cancers cure qualify for complimentary salon and spa providers, which includes wigs and head coverings.
‘She has a preventing spirit’
Gorgeous You opened at Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion in January 2020.
Walker, 67, figured out about the Attractive You right after her boyfriend, John Van Wyck, experienced talked to a golfing buddy whose spouse went there for the duration of most cancers treatment.
Alongside one another 14 several years, Walker and Van Wyck have relished an lively retirement. In the summers they ride their Harley Davidson motorbike, and in the winters they stop by their place in Florida.
Walker brightens when she describes how she spends most of her times: expending time with her twin 3-yr-outdated grandchildren, Kloe and Bobby, who continue to keep her moving.
When she started losing fat last December, Walker didn’t think a great deal of it.
“I’m the sort of man or woman who is by no means ill,” she claimed.
By April, nevertheless, she had dropped 35 lbs ., placing her in general weight at just 96 lbs.
“I imagined, ‘This is a challenge,’” she reported. “I was not ready to try to eat something at all. I’d choose two bites and be superior for two days.”
She also seasoned critical back again ache.
Just after returning to Muskegon from Florida in April, she soon related with Sreenivasa Chandana, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist specializing in pancreatic most cancers treatment method at Cancer and Hematology Facilities of Westen Michigan.
Walker had a tumor on her pancreas. She underwent therapy for cancer and acquired medicine to handle the agony, and Dr. Chandana designed a chemotherapy program aimed at preserving “a restricted lid” on the cancer.
She commenced treatment method at Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion in June. She gets chemotherapy a few Fridays in a row, with the fourth Friday off.
“Everyone there is just great,” Walker mentioned.
Dr. Chandana often stops down to check out on her. A current scan confirmed the tumor is shrinking and the cancer has not unfold.
“Part of it is the science and what we are executing,” Dr. Chandana mentioned. “And most of it, her optimistic frame of mind. She has a battling spirit.”
They established a goal for Walker to acquire 4 lbs . and idea the scale at 100 kilos by year’s end.
Walker also finds considerably motivation in spending time with her grandkids.
“I genuinely will need to see if I can make myself superior,” she stated.
Amid it all, her beneficial attitude shines by way of.
“She is a trouper,” Dr. Chandana stated. “She is really positive.”
‘A little little bit of sunshine’
So significantly, Walker has not lost any additional weight and her appetite is back.
“I feel the greatest now that I have felt in months,” she stated.
“That’s what comes about when you choose regulate of the cancer,” Dr. Chandana said.
Amid her wellbeing journey, Walker proceeds to invest cherished time with her grandchildren. She proudly displays off pics of them. Kloe desires to be a doctor, so Walker and Van Wyck purchased her a actual stethoscope.
1 working day, Kloe stated, “Nana, your hair is falling out.” Walker defined that it’s simply because of the medication she demands to get greater.
“Don’t be concerned,” Kloe replied. “We’ll invest in you some hair.”
In a the latest stop by to Wonderful You, Walker and Pokorzynski rapidly fell into easy discussion.
Walker offered updates about her grandkids as Pokorzynski braided her wig, freshened her eyeliner and confirmed her some head coverings for winter season.
Stunning You also offers Vera Bradley chemotherapy baggage with goods this sort of as hand lotion, alongside with paraffin wax remedies and scalp massages. It delivers that minor anything added.
“They come and get to see me and that’s a minimal bit of sunshine in that section of the day,” Pokorzynski explained.
“They’re in the battle of their existence,” she said. “When they request how considerably a hat or wig is and I notify them it’s free of charge, they generally get a tear in their eye. For them, it is a relief. A present. A thing they do not have to worry about.”
Each Walker and Van Wyck try to remember the first stop by to Attractive You as a turning place.
“When she put that wig on, (Van Wyck) mentioned, ‘I haven’t found a smile like that in a long time,’” Walker reported.
For the duration of her chemotherapy treatment plans, she always can make a position to notify other women about Lovely You.
“It will make you come to feel so much far better,” Walker claimed. “I assume: Be upbeat. You have to be.”
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