Sonoma County businesses offer helping hand to cancer patients

Holly Curtin regularly sees magic when she offers free beauty tips to women undergoing cancer treatment.

For Curtin, a licensed esthetician in Penngrove, the magic comes when the women smile during her two-hour sessions. In her small group presentations, she covers such topics as skin, nail and hair care, makeup tips and the use of wigs and head coverings.

For many cancer patients, radiation and chemotherapy treatments cause the loss of hair or other changes in their appearance. Curtin’s aim is to help women feel a little better about themselves.

“When they walk out and they know they have some tools in their arsenal to feel like a woman again, it’s really magnanimous,” she said.

Curtin is among a number of local business people and companies that are working with the American Cancer Society to help people battling cancer.

Through them, cancer patients are getting free beauty sessions, as well as complimentary hotel rooms for people who must travel out of town for treatment. Both efforts are part of nationwide programs.

The beauty sessions take place under the Look Good Feel Better program sponsored jointly by the Cancer Society, the Personal Care Products Council Foundation and the Professional Beauty Association. The program began nearly three decades ago and has served 1.8 million people in 26 countries.

Last year the program’s 6,000 volunteers served 50,000 women in the United States. That includes about 10 volunteers in Sonoma County serving 64 women.

In 2015, the cosmetics industry donated more than 1 million cosmetic and skin care products, valued at over $20 million, to Look Good Feel Better, according to the organization. Those donations allow participants to receive free beauty kits.

Surveys conducted for the program found that one-third of women with cancer said they avoided leaving the house because of the way they looked after going through various treatments. And 97 percent of women with cancer said there is a connection “between how they look and how they feel.”

The Cancer Society also helps patients obtain free lodging through its Hotel Partners Program. In Sonoma County, seven hotels provide free stays when they have vacant rooms, said Elizabeth Turney, a Cancer Society program manager in Santa Rosa.

The contributions help patients who must travel to receive radiation or chemotherapy treatments.

“It makes a great difference because some of our patients come from Cloverdale or Lake County,” said Janice Chamberlain, a medical assistant at the Rohnert Park Cancer Center, which provides treatment services.

Chamberlain worked with the Cancer Society to reach out to the Hampton Inn & Suites in Rohnert Park. J.A. Nordman, the hotel’s general manager and Lindsay Civin, its director of sales, said they agreed to join the program as a community service.

Nordman noted that cancer patients often are “under a lot of stress, so it’s something simple we can do” when the hotel has vacant rooms.

Also participating are the Quality Inn Petaluma and the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Sebastopol, two hotels owned by the Santa Rosa-based Lok Group of Companies.

Cindy Lok, vice president of marketing, said the program allows a way to give back to the community “and know that we’re doing a good thing.”

“I think the American Cancer Society is doing a great service,” she said.

The other participating hotels in the county are the Doubletree by Hilton in Rohnert Park and, in Santa Rosa, the Courtyard Marriott and both Extended Stay America properties.

Curtin, who operates Skin by Holly from the Fringe beauty salon in Penngrove, has been volunteering for the Look Good Feel Better program for more than two years. She was one of those interviewed whose friends or families have battled cancer.

“It’s near and dear to my heart,” she said of the volunteer work. When she gets to share some tips with participants, “it’s like a little miracle that happens.”