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Friends get shorn for woman with cancer Mail Tribune photos / Bob Pennell Rita Bailey-Galicia feels her newly shorn head Tuesday at Sheila Gunderson�s real estate office in Central Point. Bailey-Galicia, her family and Gunderson shaved their heads in support of co-worker Lorrie Roberts, who was diagnosed with breast cancer. They also hope to raise awareness of the importance of breast self- exams. By Shari Downhill CENTRAL POINT � Lorrie Roberts stood back and took a deep breath before moving forward to steady the head of her friend, click on the clippers, and shave a swath through her coiffed tresses. Roberts finished the job in about seven minutes. What had been Sheila Gunderson�s crowning glory was now in a pile at her feet, a few pieces stuck to her left eyebrow. Gunderson and about five others decided to shave their heads Tuesday in a show of support for Roberts, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in October. After her right breast was removed Dec. 5, Roberts began chemotherapy. Soon after, her hair began falling out in clumps. Monday, Roberts� 11-year-old son, Blake, took his mother�s discomfort into his own hands. "The night before, I tried to get her to do it," he said. "She wouldn�t, so I made her shave mine. "The next morning, I got out the video camera and we did hers." The boy�s clear blue-gray eyes stayed fixed. "It was hard," he said after a pause. "I�ve always thought my mom had, like, the most beautiful hair. It was blonde. It took 20 minutes ... I just shaved it all off. It was really great hair." "I told them they didn�t have to go through with this," Roberts said of Tuesday�s shaving party at Gunderson�s Central Point real estate office. "I told them the commitment was well taken. But that they could back out." But Gunderson and co-worker Rita Bailey-Galicia�s entire family would not be dissuaded. "(Lorrie) said it was hard and humiliating to have to shave her head," Bailey-Galicia said. As the clippers buzzed behind her head, Bailey-Galicia began philosophizing, her words acting as her own comfort. "We live in a community that tells us we�re valueless without our looks or our breasts ... I don�t think that�s true," she said. "Our value is not in our tent ..." As her children looked on, Bailey-Galicia continued while the clippers were fitted with a closer-shaving comb, her tone slightly more strained. "Cancer isn�t selective," she said with curls in her lap and tears in her eyes. "Mom, will your hair be able to, like, grow back?" asked her 9-year-old son, Jared. "Will you love me if it doesn�t?" she asked. "Yeah." "Good." Bailey-Galicia�s 13-year-old daughter, Karin, was the last to be shorn. "People think that looks are more important than love and friendship," Karin said. "I really don�t care what they say. I�m doing this because I love Lorrie. I have friends at school who support me." Gunderson�s shearing had a similar effect on her three teenage daughters who showed up to observe. "They didn�t believe I�d do it," Gunderson said. "I didn�t believe I�d do it. But I did. "Mainly, I wanted to set an example for my three daughters," she said. "They really need to take care of themselves." Gunderson said too few women take advantage of readily available life-saving mammograms. "If you haven�t had a mammogram and you�re 30 and above, you need to have one," she said. Gunderson said women in their 20s and 30s are now facing life-threatening cancer and could have a greater chance for survival with early detection. Even before a mammogram, Roberts said, women should learn, and faithfully practice, self breast exams on a regular basis. Although Roberts said she performed self breast exams herself, she didn�t take the time to grow familiar with her own body. "I should have. But I didn�t," she said. "I may or may not survive breast cancer, because it really had gotten away from me. I did self checks, but I wasn�t thorough about it at all and hadn�t been to the doctor in two years," she said. "If you don�t do it right, you might as well not do it at all. ... If you have questions, have somebody else do the exam. If you still have concerns, go get a mammogram. If you still have concerns, ask for an ultrasound."To give herself a fighting chance, Roberts has changed her whole family�s diet, discarding old eating habits she believes contributed to the cancer. Now, she says, she and her family eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and less meat, drink more water and try to relax. "My husband has just been great," Roberts said. "From the get-go, he said (the loss) of my breast was not important. He said, �This is not going to change our relationship.� " But it has. "There is a lot of support for those with cancer," she said. "But not a lot for couples or spouses of cancer patients. You can�t go through something like this without it being a strain. "Once you�re diagnosed with cancer, suddenly, your whole life is about cancer. That�s hard. Because ... you just want to go on living your life as normally as possible." Roberts maintains losing her right breast did not change who she is. But it has. "Now, more than ever before, I appreciate life," she said. "Now, when I wake up in the middle of the night and I can�t go back to sleep ... I appreciate that moment of alertness." Reach reporter Shari Downhill at 776-4463, or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.