Laughing Away The Pain

Laughing Away the Pain

The following article was printed in the Wisconsin State Journal, April 15, 1999 in the Daybreak Section.

Where there's a smile or a chuckle, there's Hope By Melanie McManus for the State Journal

A few months ago, Chris McHugh, a 36-year-old breast cancer survivor, sold an elderly gentleman a button while his wife waited for her appointment in the ''chemo room'' at University Hospital. McHugh watched as the man walked over to his wife and said, ''I bought a button for you, honey.'' ''Well, OK, if you really think you need to buy me one,'' she groused. The man gently pinned a large ''Cancer Sucks'' button on her coat, and she burst out laughing. He began chuckling, too.

''Nobody had laughed in the chemo room for years,'' says McHugh. ''That simple button changed the face of cancer treatment for those people.'' McHugh is determined to bring more smiles, cheer and hope to fellow cancer sufferers, and provide money for cancer research, through new business, Choose Hope™ Inc.

Started by McHugh and fellow breast cancer survivor Linda Nielsen of Oconomowoc, plus DeForest resident Paula Lundberg, Choose Hope™ produces and sells humorous and inspirational gifts for people with cancer. Most of the proceeds go toward cancer research. Besides the buttons, which proclaim everything from ''Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow'' and ''I'm Having a No Hair Day,'' to ''Miracles Happen'' and ''Choose Hope™,'' there are ''chemo bags,'' filled with items such as bandannas or skull caps, lemon drops (sucking on them during chemotherapy is soothing) and puzzles for kids.

There are terra cotta ''Seeds of Hope'' pots, filled with flower seeds, and ''Flame of Hope'' candles. And there are the wildly popular ''Cancer Sucks'' buttons, sold alone or fastened onto coffee mugs -- appropriately filled with suckers.

The women say the reaction their gift items has been overwhelmingly positive. ''It's filling such a niche,'' says Lundberg, who drives McHugh to her medical appointments and, as a former shopkeeper, takes care of the business end of things. ''Everyone says, 'Where can I get that?' The stuff just walks out the door.''

Initially, McHugh brought a few items with her to sell when she went to her own chemotherapy appointments. Then she set things out in a basket in the University Hospital oncology pharmacy and in a DeForest drugstore.

As demand for the gifts skyrocketed, the women decided to regroup. Over the past few weeks they've been busy building up an inventory, producing a catalog and mapping out a statewide sales strategy that initially focuses on stocking hospital gift shops and cancer centers.

The company will have an informal kickoff at Saturday's run/walk for the American Cancer Society, where it will sell items from a booth. Eventually, their hope is to take the business nationwide through catalog and Internet sales.

Ironically, both McHugh and Nielsen had no intention of returning to the work force after their cancer diagnoses. And Lundberg was hesitant to jump into a small-business venture after a previous one failed. But things just seemed to fall in place for Choose Hope™.

''It's been a very strange experience,'' laughs Lundberg. ''As hard as we tried to backpedal and not move so fast, things kept working out perfectly. It's like the business is meant to be.''

To date, Choose Hope™ has donated more than $2,000 to the local American Cancer Society chapter and the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center (UWCCC).

''Contributions such as these assist the UWCCC in the providing seed monies for a number of cancer research and treatment pilot projects,'' says Dr. John Niederhuber, center director. ''We're most appreciative of the money.'' The women are convinced the cure for cancer lies just around the corner, and the key is more research dollars.

''The (science community) has the technology,'' says McHugh. ''They just need to get the research off the ground.''

For McHugh and Nielsen, spurring on cancer research is of critical importance, and not just for themselves. The two are plugged into a statewide breast cancer community and lose about a friend a month to the disease. They also both have daughters who are now at high risk of developing breast cancer. ''We can't walk away from it,'' says Nielsen. ''We can't sit on our hands and do nothing.'' But besides helping to find a cure, the women want to reach out to other cancer sufferers today.