Cancer Cast Actress Jo McLachlan as James Bond

Imagine waking up at 3AM experiencing a twinge in your chest and then feeling a lump between your breasts. Most women’s first reaction would be: Is it a cyst or is it cancer? And, if it’s cancer, can it be removed without removing my breast or do I have to have my breast removed? Has it spread? How long will I have to live? While these were indeed questions that circulated in actress Jo McLachlan’s mind in the middle of the night, her immediate response was “if this is cancer, I can’t let anybody know.”

The ‘anybody’ McLachlan was referring to was the Hollywood Industry.  Upon returning to her acting career, after a sabbatical to focus on raising her children, McLachlan’s career was incrementally on the rise. She scored appearances on The Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and even appeared in a music video for the legendary Bob Dylan. Having fought her way back into the industry, after being a successful comedian in the 90’s, she was not about to let this potentially cancerous lump evict her. 

But, another thought plagued her mind. Her Blue Shield premium was approximately $2200 a month, a major challenge to consistently meet. At times, she and her husband barely made it. Would she and her husband still be able to float this extortionate amount for healthcare? There would be serious consequences if they lost their coverage at this point in time.

Unfortunately, the doctors did conclude that the lump was cancer. In fact, both her breasts had two different types of cancer. Her left breast had IDC (infiltrating ductal carcinoma) with an aggression scale of 8 out of 9 and it had slightly infiltrated her lymph nodes and her right breast had BCIS (breast carcinoma in situ) in its early stages. Additionally, the tumor was adhered to her bone, so the doctors couldn’t go in and just take it off. They had to shrink it first with chemotherapy.

Upon concluding that she had breast cancer, her doctor thought it would be a good idea to get the gene test, since McLachlan’s mother and two of her mother’s sisters had breast cancer. It should come as no surprise that Blue Shield, an insurance company who has vehemently denied discriminating against women with breast cancer, rejected her attempts to get the test.  Blue Shield said, “Our policy says that you are 56 years old and with breast cancer, therefore the service has been denied.” But, thanks to McLachlan’s persevering doctor whose utmost concerns are comprehensive patient care, Blue Shield finally approved the test.  The results proved that she did not carry the gene and one can only hypothesize that Blue Shield said, with a sneer, “I told you so.” Needless to say, McLachlan and her doctor had greater battles ahead of them, although Blue Shield did occasionally give them some nuisances along the way.

McLachlan never told a soul about her cancer outside her husband, family and close friends.  Despite having seven surgeries during a six month period, a mastectomy and chemotherapy and radiation treatments, she still attended acting class and submitted herself for roles when she felt strong. She felt like James Bond, living the life of danger and never wanting to give up her cover, which at times, was extremely challenging and not always graceful.

McLachlan prepared for chemotherapy by cutting her hair fairly short and picking out a wig that looked as close as possible to her hair. After her first chemo, she had her close friend drive her to acting class, having no idea what the serious after-effects would be like: thirst, nausea, dizziness and weakness.  As she sat for hours on a folding chair, experiencing these symptoms to the nth degree, no one noticed or even blinked an eye.

One day while she was in the shower, her scalp became itchy. As the hot water continued to wash over her body, her body began to tingle, shedding all of her hair. Losing the hair didn’t disturb her as much as the thought of somebody finding out that she was wearing a wig and not hiring her because ‘she’s almost as good as dead.’  When McLachlan emphatically told her doctor, “I cannot lose my eyebrows or eyelashes”; a real giveaway to her illness, he gave her resolute advice, “don’t touch them, and they won’t fall out.” And, they never did.

But as her treatments continued, McLachlan’s façade became more difficult.  One day, after booking a commercial, McLachlan’s secret life was about to be exposed when the make-up artist wanted to fix her hair.  Realizing she was about to be beat, McLachlan said, “listen. I have cancer. This is a wig. You can work with a wig, can’t you?”  The climactic suspense she had prior to telling the make-up artist resulted in no Shakespearian tragedy. In fact, the ending was quite uneventful. Her job was not put in jeopardy and the make-up artist continued to work on her wig.  But despite the happy ending, McLachlan was still not comfortable revealing her circumstances to the world. She just didn’t want people to look at her as a woman with cancer because she was so much more.  McLachlan could not bear the thought of her friends or colleagues not knowing what to say as they looked at her with that sorrowful look that said, “you’re going to die soon, aren’t you?”

After she had her partial mastectomy which temporarily left her with uneven breasts, something she temporarily fixed with a Macy’s breast adhesive insert, she contracted an antibiotic resistant infection and had to have an intravenous injection two hours in the morning and two hours in the night everyday via a device that was hooked to a port in her body. Since it was five inches down from her neck and a little bit above her cleavage, man tailored shirts buttoned up to the top became her cover-up.  She performed on stage in her improvisational group, Corporate Recess, with drains under her arm unbeknownst to the audience.  Her co-stars, however, were let in on her circumstances as improv is a trust-driven process. The side effects from Aromasin made it difficult to walk, but no one noticed because she still soldiered on with a smile on her face exuding the fighting spirit that she fostered. In one instance, she bumped into a friend who thought she had never looked better.

There were some positive aspects from cancer, believe it or not. Having ‘chemo brain’ helped McLachlan become more witty and funny.  It helped her timing. “You can’t remember anything,” she said, “but you can make connections in your mind, all the stuff that you usually think about is gone, but for me it benefited my mind.” 

Now in remission and ending her role as James Bond, cancer helped her gain a new perspective. “I went from being told, ‘you’re good,’ or ‘you’re funny’ to just feeling like: I am enough. I am enough with what I am, with what I do and I don’t have to try too hard. Insecurity always pushed you to do that. I am not breast cancer. I am lucky, loved, and I am enough.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCf0G8mZKxo&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbRAnrAYN7w