 |
| To cope
with the trauma of chemotherapy, Bonnie Southcott has posed
for a series of humorous cards and calendars. |
Cancer is no laughing
matter, but a woman suffering through chemotherapy is rethinking
that.
Bonnie Southcott, of Ferndale,
Wash., is teaching people that even though cancer isn't fun, it
can be funny.
She was seven months pregnant with her second child Nate when doctors
found the tumor.
"In a flash moment, I went from being a happy expectant
mother, to being someone afraid for her life," she told reporters.
Minutes after doctors delivered Nate by emergency C-section,
Southcott went into surgery. The diagnosis was ovarian cancer.
Suddenly tears and chemotherapy overtook her life. But the lowest
moment came after she lost all her hair and a free wig arrived.
She tried it on as her older son Kyler watched.
"I thought I can cry about this bad wig and he'll remember
it, or I can laugh about it and he will remember that," Southcott
said.
That was when she started laughing a lot, and found it was the
perfect medicine.
"I spent a lot time looking for anything humor based for
cancer patients," she said. "And I'll tell you what:
There isn't much out there."
Using herself as a bald model, Bonnie started her own line of
greeting cards and a calendar. Each pose pokes fun at the tribulations
of chemo.
"We desperately need to laugh," she said. "It's
vital to our joy."
Even though Southcott's ovarian cancer is in remission, the diagnosis
is no laughing matter - a 25-percent chance she will live for
another two-years.
She plans to appreciate every moment of motherhood. And she plans
to laugh.
(Agencies)
Updated: 2002-07-24 01:00