When Barbara Connolly was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, she turned to Northeast Regional Cancer Institute for help.
"Knowing you have cancer and understanding what it all means helps," she said. "You really don't understand what it's all about until you're hit with it."
Today, the 30-year-old mother of three is healthy and armed with a fierce determination to bring awareness to the cause. Recently, she used her artistic abilities to help the NRCI via its annual Holiday Note Card fundraiser.
The fundraiser features six individual note cards created by local cancer survivors or loved ones, including Ms. Connolly, who underwent a double mastectomy earlier this year. The cards come in packs of 12 and cost $15, with all proceeds going to NRCI.
"It's a good cause to donate to," said Ms. Connolly, of Green Ridge. "It helps people like myself."
The participants were all asked to come up with a different winter scene. Ms. Connolly went with a bright and cheerful acrylic painting of a young girl building a snowman. For inspiration, she drew upon the carefree winter days of her youth.
"It's a nice, festive winter scene," said Kristin Klemish, NRCI's community relations coordinator.
"Everyone loves playing in the snow," Ms. Connolly said. "After you have cancer, (happy times are) kind of something you focus on more. ... It's something everyone can relate to, and hopefully put a smile on their face."
Thoughtful art
After her diagnosis, Ms. Connolly's daughters' pediatrician recommended she go to the NRCI for genetic counseling. One day, she was chatting with some of the women at the office when she mentioned she liked to paint hair bows for her daughters, Kristen Kuniegel, 5, and Jennifer Kuniegel, 3. It was then that they asked her if she'd like to participate in the note card fundraiser.
"I thought, I'd like to help people in my shoes, so I said yes," said Ms. Connolly, who also has a 13-year-old son, C.J. Penzone.
About a year and a half ago, a friend of Ms. Connolly had a breast cancer scare, and suggested Ms. Connolly check herself, despite the fact that she was only 29 at the time. A couple of months later, she found a lump the size of a watermelon seed in her left breast. Not realizing Ms. Connolly has a history of cancer on both sides of her family, her gynecologist told her she was too young for breast cancer, and that it was probably just lumpy because of her menstrual cycle.
Fighting back
However, around Christmas, Ms. Connolly felt the lump again, and it had grown to the size of a peach pit. Eventually, she got a lumpectomy, which revealed stage 2 breast cancer.
Given her family's history and the strong possibility of reoccurrence, she opted to undergo a double mastectomy on April 25. In June, she began the first of four rounds of chemotherapy.
Her hair now growing back, Ms. Connolly is cancer-free and was recently given a clean bill of health.
"Luckily, they found it in time. Some women aren't as lucky," said Ms. Connolly, currently in the middle of making wedding plans with her fiance, Ronald Kuniegel.
As a result of her ordeal, Ms. Connolly has committed herself to spreading awareness to young at-risk women like herself. She's volunteering for several local organizations, and she and her five sisters, all of whom she encouraged to get mammograms, have created the Girls Night In Club, which will hold parties where attendees will wear pink hats and donate gifts like hats, head wraps, special mouthwashes and toothpastes, gift cards for haircuts and massages and other things beneficial to breast cancer patients.
"It just feels good to help, because I can," Ms. Connolly said. "I survived it."
Contact the writer: jmcauliffe@timesshamrock.comTo order holiday cards
To place an order for a pack of holiday note cards, call Northeast Regional Cancer Institute at 941-7984 in Scranton or 970-6543 in Wilkes-Barre, or visit www.cancernepa.org to access an informational flyer and registration form. To see more of The Times-Tribune or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2008, The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.