DANVERS — Pam Parkinson had never publicly shared her story of being a 20-year survivor of breast cancer until yesterday.
However, when the director of senior and social services chose do to do so, she did so in one of the most public places in town, on steps of the lobby in Town Hall.
"It's your body, your life, your future, be proactive," she told about 50 jeans-wearing town employees who attended a breast cancer awareness month workshop yesterday morning.
The employees were wearing "presentable" jeans as part of a fundraiser for the breast cancer programs of the American Cancer Society. They not only paid $5 to wear jeans to work, they attended a workshop to promote awareness. A wellness representative of the Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association, Claire Alemian, who helps the town coordinate its wellness programs, spoke about breast cancer screening and Dr. Catherine DeLory spoke on behalf of the Women's Health Institute in Boston about breast health.
However, it was Parkinson's story of hope that proved the most compelling, DeLory said, because it gave employees a sense they can have a measure of control over their lives when faced with the disease.
Parkinson had none of the risk factors associated with breast cancer, DeLory said: She had her two children before age 30, she wasn't using birth control pills, she breast fed, and she was fairly young.
Parkinson, 48, said she discovered a lump in the shower at age 28.
"You try to tell yourself all the rational reasons why it can't be," she said.
At the time, her son, Ian, was 2 and her daughter, Colleen, was just 11 months.
She went to the doctor, who confirmed her worst fears, and after getting a second opinion, she underwent a modified radical mastectomy.
Parkinson said she felt the need to tell her story to fellow employees, and perhaps help save a life, after one of her close friends, Gail Hart of Haverhill, died in August from breast cancer after a two-year struggle. She was 49.
"It was her courageous battle with her disease that encouraged me to speak publicly," said Parkinson, who said women should not be afraid to take advantage of advances in medicine.
She also had a message for men to be supportive.
"Remember, the person with breast cancer is the same person you loved before the diagnosis," she said.
