For cancer patients undergoing treatment, one of the hardest things to handle during the journey is managing the physical changes that can make you feel like “not yourself.”

Changes in skin, hair loss, weight loss; all these changes can make you feel like you don’t look like yourself or don’t look good.

To help patients cope, the Look Good, Feel Better program is offered free at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center for all women with cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy. The program teaches beauty techniques to cancer patients to help them manage the appearance-related side effects of cancer treatment.

The class includes a makeover as well as learning fun ways to accessorize with hats, scarves and wigs to create your own personal style. The class also helps women connect with other women so that they don’t ‘feel alone.’

Rachel Platt of WHAS – 11 TV, visited the Look Good, Feel Better program on Monday and talked to Ruth Totty-Mitchell and to another cancer patient, Martha Johnson, about their experiences.

Ruth, 61, was one of the dozen or so women who attended the two-hour Look Good, Feel Better class this past Monday, September 10, at the JGBCC. She was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and said her most difficult challenge was feeling that her fate was no longer completely in her hands.

“It’s a loss of control and that is scary,” she said. “Learning to accept help from others when all my life I have been the glue, I have been the caretaker, is hard.”

“But,” she continued as she looked around the room, “this group of people are my support; they are my strength for the journey.”

For more information about the Look Good, Feel Better program, please call the M. Krista Loyd Resource Center at the JGBCC at (502) 562-4158 or visit the James Graham Brown Cancer Center website.