Puttin' on the Pink is back to support breast cancer survivors

PATTERSON — The pink was back Saturday at Morey Park.
Last year, after 300 participants surprised organizers by showing up to support breast cancer survivors with a fundraising walk and run, another 317 signed up early for this year’s second edition of Puttin’ on the Pink.
The Roots & Ribbons Foundation event, conceived as a way to keep local donations home to help local survivors, drew people — male and female — in pink tutus, pink hats, pink skirts and pink shirts. The volunteers included BETA Club members and a cheerleader from Morgan City.
Among the expected attendees were 48 women who lived through their cancer diagnoses, probably chemotherapy, maybe radiation and mastectomy, and are living on the other side. Elouise Johnson of Amelia was among them.
Sitting under a tent with friend Marilyn Broussard, waiting for the crowd to gather, Johnson didn’t talk about illness or fear. A member of the Railroad Avenue Church of Christ, she talked about God.
“God is going to help us when we help each other,” said Johnson, who at 74 is a 19-year cancer survivor.
She recalled the doctor’s visit in 2004 at which she learned about a lump in her breast. She and her doctor monitored her health until, in 2005, her condition required intervention.
Johnson doesn’t remember the name of the doctor who treated her at Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center at Houma. But she remembers his advice.
“He told me, ‘If you were my wife, I would do it,’” Johnson said.
“It” was a mastectomy. Johnson took his advice.
“I wasn’t exactly scared,” Johnson said. “My children asked me, ‘Mama, are you scared?’ I told them no.
“If I had died on that table, I told them all we can do is pray. I went in there and stayed one day. I went in there singing hymns, and I walked out saying the Twenty-third Psalm.”
Her treatment also included chemotherapy. Stories about the rigors of chemotherapy, the hair falling out and extreme nausea, are widely known.
“Some have chemo,” Johnson said. “Some have radiation. Some have chemo and radiation. When I first got my chemo I was able to get in my car and go shopping.”
Johnson did lose her hair, but she got a wig at a Lafayette cancer center, and her hair eventually grew back.
Her friend Marilyn wasn’t as fortunate. She had both radiation treatment and chemotherapy.
“It was rough,” Broussard said.
But Broussard, like her friend, has been a survivor for decades. Her diagnosis was 24 years ago.
Now Johnson gets a mammogram every six months.
“Early detection is the best protection,” Johnson said, “when you catch it when it’s small. …
“The only thing I wanted was for the cancer to be removed from my body,” she said. “That was the main thing.”