You can support women in your community like Sarah by purchasing a ticket to a Shoppers Drug Mart beauty gala on Saturday November 4. $5 from every $10 ticket sold in the Prairie provinces and Atlantic region will go towards Look Good Feel Better, helping women with cancer feel like themselves again.
Sarah Ingalls was never much of a makeup user – until the 43-year-old Saint John mother of three was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year.
She found the lump in December 2016 and received her diagnosis in January. She underwent chemotherapy and radiation.
While she was O.K. with losing her hair – “I didn’t mind being bald. It was freeing and fun,” she said – she struggled with the other appearance-related side effects.
“I thought, if I’m going to have no eyelashes, eyebrows or hair – I might need a little help,” said Ingalls.
She remembered her mother attended a Look Good Feel Better workshop when she was diagnosed with cancer 12 years ago, so she signed up for a session at Saint John Regional Hospital.
“Look Good Feel Better helped me feel confident in pulling myself together,” she said. “I wasn't an avid makeup user, but when I made the effort to do my makeup, people commented on how good or healthy I looked.”
“That in turn made me feel better.”
While her church community stepped up to help by providing weeknight meals, the workshop was one of the first support services Ingalls actually signed up for. She’s since joined a support group at the hospital and joined the Flat and Fabulous Facebook group for breast cancer survivors.
With four radiation treatments left to go, Ingalls is open about her experience and shares her story with others to raise awareness not only of breast cancer, but also available programs and services, like Look Good Feel Better, so other women in a similar situation know what’s available for them.
“What is the point in going through this and keeping it to yourself?” asked Ingalls. “It’s obvious that you’re going through it, so you might as well help other people learn more about it.”
Purchase a ticket to a Shoppers Drug Mart beauty gala on Saturday November 4 and you'll be helping women like Sarah Ingalls - she is just one of 103,200 Canadian women expected to be diagnosed with cancer this year. $5 from every $10 ticket sold in the Prairie provinces and Atlantic region will go towards Look Good Feel Better, helping women with cancer feel like themselves again.
