Local women bring their varied strengths in waging fight against breast cancer

by Elaine Durbach
NJJN Bureau Chief/Central

Fanwood jewelry store owner Tara Freundlich is a proud participant in the battle against breast and ovarian cancer. “I see myself and women like me as warriors paving the way for other women,” she said.

Officially, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but Freundlich and other Central New Jersey women fighting to end the disease don’t limit their struggle to that month any more than the disease limits its onslaught. This month, their efforts include joining forces for a conference in Florida on hereditary factors and an art exhibition in Watchung focused on breasts and breast cancer.

Freundlich will head south next week to the conference organized by a Web-based group called FORCE — Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered. It will take place in Tampa on Feb. 10 and 11. Like a number of other Ashkenazi Jewish women, she tested positive for a gene mutation that radically increases the chances of getting breast and ovarian cancer. “Belonging to FORCE has given me fellowship and support,” she said. It has also provided a vehicle through which to help others at risk.

The group sponsors an on-line information service, publishes a newsletter, and campaigns to increase genetic research and testing and support legislation to prevent insurance discrimination based on a person’s genetic background.

Talking in her store, Crown Jewels, she displayed a special line she carries — a range of bracelets with pink and teal stones, the FORCE colors symbolizing breast and ovarian cancer, and the organization’s heart logo. The bracelets, which are designed and made by a local jeweler, sell for between $40 and $95; half the proceeds go to FORCE.

Freundlich hasn’t had breast cancer herself, but she attributes that to a radical decision she made three years ago: She had both breasts removed and eight months later had a complete hysterectomy. It was a decision she took years to arrive at, but — given her genetic inheritance — it shifted her chances of getting breast cancer from 87 percent, to 4 percent. “When my husband heard those figures, he was more than willing for me to have the prophylactic surgery,” she said.

It opened up a possibility Freundlich said she had never contemplated before: “I hadn’t realized before that I had never seen myself as growing old. This gave me a future.”

She comes from a family of women who died early. She was about 11 when her grandmother died at 54 from breast cancer. Her grandmother’s sister died at 30. Freundlich was in her 20s when her aunt died, and she was in her mid-30s when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died three years later, in her 50s.

She maintained a “high vigilance,” having regular mammograms and examinations, but she didn’t test for the BRCA 1 or 2 gene mutation believed to be common in her family. She didn’t believe that knowing she carried it would be helpful. Then, in 2002, she had a mammogram that raised some questions, and for 15 minutes she was kept waiting for further results. “They came back to me and said I was clear — there was nothing wrong, but that was enough for me,” she said. In that time she had imagined enough to make up her mind. With two children, a loving husband, and a life she relished, she wasn’t going to ignore the risk any longer.

Freundlich persuaded her sister to come with her and be tested too. Her sister’s results were negative; Freundlich’s were positive — reflecting the 50-50 chance of inheriting the BRCA gene mutation. She would like her brother to be tested too, because though it might not affect him, he could pass the gene mutation on to his daughters.

Though she is forthright about the trauma of preventive surgery as extensive as hers, Freundlich stresses the positive. She had simultaneous mastectomy and reconstruction, using a vein and fatty tissue from her belly. “I went to sleep with breasts and I woke up with breasts — only like a 19-year-old,” she declared. She had very little pain, and was soon back to exercising, working, and her usual life — minus the old anxiety.

Freundlich, working with FORCE, has reached out to as many people as she can, urging them to do three things: see a certified genetic counselor to get the most up-to-date information, explore their own family genetic history, and get tested. “Finding out that you’re positive for BRCA 1 or 2 can be overwhelming, but it gives you information, and that can’t steer you wrong. Information makes you more powerful,” she said.

Clara Manheim of Scotch Plains is another warrior in the breast cancer battle, but she is fighting on a totally different front. As an artist and a breast cancer survivor, she has chosen to use visual means to raise awareness.

She and 28 other women artists, some fellow survivors, all touched by the disease in some way, will exhibit works inspired by that experience in “Breast Cancer: An Artist’s View,” a show at the Watchung Arts Center from Sunday, Feb. 5, to Sunday, March 5. At the closing event that day, there will be a staged reading of For Tiger Lilies Out of Season, a play by another survivor, Dr. Andrea Green.

Posters for the exhibition feature a multicolored, textured quilt Manheim made based on one of her paintings that focused on a woman’s breasts. “I did it 10 years before I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” she said with a note of the wonder that still lingers for her.

She had a mastectomy nine years ago, followed by chemotherapy. That treatment, she said, was the worst thing she has endured — but she is still grateful for it. “Without the chemo, I wouldn’t be here to complain about all the problems its caused,” she stated with a grin.

Now 70, Manheim is coping with a host of physical ailments, including a deteriorating spine, but that hasn’t stopped her. Since that cancer treatment, she has traveled widely, gone white water rafting, taken part in a shark spotting expedition in a submerged cage, hiked, climbed, and embarked on whatever other adventures she could find.

“I want to live my life to the fullest,” she declared, talking in her home, a haven adorned with her own vibrantly colorful paintings and fabric creations, and bright masks and figures from all over the world.

The artworks on show — and for sale — at the Watchung Arts Center are by Manheim and a circle of her artist friends from all over New Jersey and further afield. They include a smaller circle called ArtShare, a group of painters she meets with once a week to share inspiration and encouragement.

With a twinkle that belies her ill health, Manheim described how the show came about. “I wanted to do something to raise awareness about breast cancer, and I thought, Why not have an exhibition of art bras?” With a supply of lingerie from a major retailer, which asked not to be named, she and her cohorts went to town adorning the bras, much in the way that artists have been decorating cows, violins, or other objects to raise funds. A couple of different venues agreed to show them, but then — for unspecified reasons — backed down. So the concept was broadened to a more easily marketed format, with paintings, collages, fiber works, sculptures, and prints — and the bras.

The opening reception at the arts center, at 18 Stirling Rd., Watchung, will be from 2 to 5 p.m., with an artists’ talk at 3 p.m.

For more information, contact Manheim at 732-382-8231, or Cynthia Smith Weiss at 908-654-4665, or contact the art center at 908-753-0190.

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