Geralyn Lucas: Why I Wore Lipstick To My Mastectomy

Breast Cancer, Featured Article, Women's Health
on October 21, 2013
geralyn lucas
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Who says breast cancer survivors can’t feel sexy? This is the message that Geralyn Lucas—breast cancer activist, survivor and author of the book Why I Wore Lipstick To My Mastectomy—is trying to convey loud and clear.

At 27, an age when most of her peers were pursuing careers and getting married, Geralyn was blindsided by a diagnosis of breast cancer.  Along with that came the harrowing prospect of losing one of her breasts, a key marker of femininity. “I remember when I was told I needed to have a mastectomy and the absolute shock of it,” Geralyn says. “It’s shocking to think about losing any body part, but a breast…a breast is different. It just is.”

Now, eighteen years after her mastectomy, Geralyn reflects on her cancer journey, offers dating tips for cancer survivors and explains why she famously wore red lipstick to her mastectomy.