Breast Cancer Hero
LUCY GIUGGIO CARVALHO

One participant who has walked the Rays of Hope Walk & Run Toward the Cure of Breast Cancer every year with family and friends is the event's founder and breast cancer survivor, Lucia "Lucy" Giuggio Carvalho.

The evolution of the fundraiser and advances in the treatment of the disease as well as survivors' willingness to speak out about it are what give her a sense of hope for a cure.

"More research is being done and the reason for this commitment is that women speak up and legislators speak up. We have a voice that says this is important. We want to put an end to breast cancer. This is never going to be fast enough for me, and I don't know if it will happen in my lifetime — I would like to not see anyone get breast cancer — but as long as we keep going forward, this gives me peace."

Lucy was only 38 when she was diagnosed in 1993 with breast cancer. There was no history of the disease in her family.

"I was overwhelmed and very, very distraught. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I didn't know what to do myself."

At the time she was a registered nurse working in Baystate Medical Center's oncology unit and was "more geared to think negatively than positively" about the disease.

There were no centers specifically designed to coordinate treatment of breast cancer in the area then and Lucy recalled the disease was not one discussed publicly.

"I felt as a nurse there wasn't a lot of information about breast cancer. It was very scattered. You had to search for your own treatment. There were no breast centers here where everything was in one place. It was very scary."

She had detected her own tumor through a self-exam and biopsy results showed it to be early stage breast cancer . She went for second opinions outside the area and then decided on a course of treatment — all done at Baystate — that involved chemotherapy, radiation, and lumpectomy.

"They were not really doing chemotherapy on stage 1 cancer that had not gone into the lymph nodes but mine was an aggressive tumor and I wanted to fight back aggressively. My oncologist was Dr. Paul Hetzel and Dr. William Reed was my surgeon. The breast center was not in existence then but I had great care." 

Lucy said it took "a good year to feel back to myself."

Her thick hair gradually thinned four months into the chemo and she recalled the "awkward, uncomfortable everyone-staring-at-me" feeling of wearing a wig for the first time.

"It takes a while to feel better and you never truly feel like you felt before. It affects you in the long term. It's your new normal." 

It was while she was recuperating that Lucy had the idea for the walk, modeled after walks in Boston for other causes her relatives had taken part in as a way to "raise money for breast health services."

"I was so really thankful for the care that I got that I wanted to give back. I had the passion to start the walk but really needed a flagship sponsor and so I aligned myself with Baystate from the very beginning."

She was still "a little worn down" from treatment at the time of the first walk in 1994. She remembers being "really scared and nervous" about speaking in front of the walkers but also how the event "even outgrew me the first year."

"The first walk was magical. I knew I could get 200 people alone from my family who came from San Francisco and New York. There were also close friends and people I had worked with at Baystate. We got 500 walkers and many of those same people are still involved."

While Lucy acknowledges she "came up with the idea" for the walk with related resource booths, she credits the community for the greater public awareness of the disease.

"The community help make the D'Amour Center for Cancer Care happen by showing its support and made the walk successful. They just embraced it. When I was younger, breast cancer was still a secretive disease. If someone had it, it was not talked about. It is now 180 degrees the other way. People walk to raise money to fight it and speak out about it. This has improved the whole situation, " said Carvalho who is on the community advisory board for the Rays of Hope and remains a member of the volunteer steering committee for the walk.

Lucy said that since she does not have any children, she regards Rays of Hope as "my child." "It now has a life of its own."

"There are more people each year but the spirit has not changed. That has been the constant. You can almost touch it and that is incredible. There is love, there is hope and there is a spirit of camaraderie. It is just genuine."

Looking back today, Lucy says, "it all evolved so beautifully, so perfectly."