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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Breast cancer awareness on Lifetime


Actress Sarah Chalke gets a mammogram in this scene from
Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn Associated Press

As she’s wheeled into the operating room to undergo a mastectomy the day after her 28th birthday, Geralyn Lucas applies her bright red lipstick.

“Under anesthesia, with a tube forced down my throat, I am hopeful and maybe even a little sexy. And slightly in control, just knowing that my lipstick might last,” writes Lucas in her bold, irreverent 2004 memoir, “Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy.”

The colorful odyssey of this breast-cancer survivor has been turned into a Lifetime movie which premieres Monday night, with “Scrubs” Sarah Chalke as Lucas.

Commemorating National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the film has become the centerpiece of Lifetime’s 12-year “Stop Breast Cancer for Life” campaign.

Lucas also happens to be the network’s director of public affairs.

“I went to work for Lifetime because of their breast-cancer campaign,” she says on the phone from her office in New York. “They were very supportive when they heard I was writing this book. When they read it, they were, like, ‘We love this. We want to do something with it.’ “

Meredith Wagner, Lifetime’s executive vice president of public affairs, acknowledges it was a “very unusual situation” making such a personal movie about a network executive.

“It’s made Geralyn somewhat iconic around the halls here, and it has reaffirmed the company’s commitment to the issue,” Wagner says.

Like the book, the film subtly blends humor with the heartbreak of surgery and chemotherapy, the fear of death, and the difficulties in coming to terms with what it really means to be a woman – with a long-lasting supermatte lipstick serving as a metaphor for hope and courage.

“When I put on the red lipstick, it did feel like this war paint, like this crazy preparation of going into battle,” Lucas says. “You are just in for the fight of your life.”

Chalke shot the mastectomy scene on her first day on the set.

“And then we shot the chemotherapy scenes the next day,” she says, “and those were really difficult because we were filming in a real chemo room in a hospital in Toronto.

“It just takes your breath away when you walk in there,” continues Chalke, who lost an aunt and a grandmother to cancer. “There’s a bunch of armchairs with IV poles with the bags of chemotherapy and the skull and crossbones sticker on the bag. It made me feel for all those women who have to walk in there for the first time.”

Today, one in eight women will develop breast cancer, notes Wagner.

“There is a tremendous urgency right now,” she says. “Even though awareness is greater, the urgency is early detection.”

Recording artists India.Arie and Pink teamed up for the film to perform a special version of India.Arie’s 2005 single “I Am Not my Hair,” an homage to women who have lost their hair from chemotherapy.

The single, available on iTunes starting Monday, has become the soundtrack to Lifetime’s extensive monthlong awareness campaign – on-air, online and in communities around the country, including college campuses.

Organizations like the national Zeta Tau Alpha sorority are sponsoring “courage nights” to inform women on the tools of detection: regular self exams or clinical exams, such as a mammogram.

Earlier this year, network executives joined the singer Jewel in lobbying Congress to pass the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2005 to end “drive-through” mastectomies for women forced to leave the hospital just hours after surgery. Lifetime has already collected more than 12 million signatures for the petition.

“Media can certainly play a significant role in driving more awareness to all of this,” Wagner stresses.

ABC knows that, too, and that’s why “The View” and “Grey’s Anatomy” have partnered with Ford Motor Company for its “Warriors in Pink” campaign.

Each week in October, “The View” has honored a breast-cancer survivor chosen from personal stories submitted to the show, while “Grey’s Anatomy” has scheduled a breast-cancer-themed episode for Thursday night.

The entire “Grey’s” cast recently swapped their scrubs for items from the “Warriors in Pink” merchandise line to promote Ford’s national ad campaign.

All of the proceeds from the line – including “Warrior Wear” clothing, accessories and body art, as well as limited-edition “Warrior” coffee mugs from “The View” – go to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

“One of the important things about the campaign is that it embodies the spirit of a survivor, their fight and their belief that we can beat this disease,” says Katrina Drake of the Komen Foundation, which has previously worked with such shows as “ER” and “Sex in the City.”

“It really does take the work of all of us to get involved in the fight to get closer to the cure.”

As for Lucas, regular CAT scans and MRI tests are now a way of life. But, she says, she couldn’t be better.

“It is such a privilege to still be here,” says the 39-year-old the mother of two. “I didn’t think I could ever become a mother, or write a book. Dreams – survival – can happen.

“And that warrior thing, it’s so powerful. It’s like you’re still standing, and not only are you standing, you’re standing in some brand new high heels.”