“A cancer diagnosis is experienced by almost everybody I’ve ever talked to as a death sentence, at first,” says Nancy Lanoue, a 13-year breast-cancer survivor. “Then you sort of start to breathe and start being able to listen to what the doctors are really saying to you. And then you figure out a way to fight back.”

Lanoue, a fifth-degree black belt in Seido karate, fought back in style. “In terms of rallying and creating a fighting spirit, [my training] enabled me to make intelligent choices about treatment and not delay,” she says.

But in 1989, after her partner, Jeanette Pappas, lost her life to pancreatic cancer, Lanoue realized something more needed to be done. Along with three other local women, Lanoue helped to found the Lesbian Community Cancer Project (LCCP) in Chicago, which began as a support program and hotline for women with cancer. Today, LCCP runs programs and clinics that serve more than 300 women a year and help thousands of others through outreach programs.

One of these programs is the Stress Management Clinic held weekly at Thousand Waves Spa in Chicago, which is owned by Lanoue and her current partner, Sarah Ludden. One night a week, the spa closes to the public, and volunteers give free spa sessions, energy treatments and massage therapy to recently diagnosed women and their caregivers.
Though Lanoue has stepped back from major responsibility with the LCCP, she still plays an important role within her community. “I more just function as a little individual person who talks to women when they get cancer and sort of holds up my own lucky story of being almost a 14-year survivor now,” she says. “Women with cancer love to talk to [survivors] who are still here. ... It’s very, very important to have those connections.”

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