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Feature StoriesYvonne Simon Perottiby Michael CoreyYvonne Simon Perotti has been at the forefront of the fight against breast cancer since her mastectomy in 1975. With three children--ages 7, 14 and 16--she took on a disease that, at the time, people considered a death sentence. "People were frightened by it," Perotti recalls. The tragic conclusion that too often resulted from breast cancer immediately crept into her mind. "It was like, 'Oh, God, could that happen to me?' But it was probably harder--once I got over the initial scare, it was probably harder on my husband and family then it was on me." And so it was that Perotti forged ahead with an unwavering determination to survive. She was 37 years old. "You deal with what you deal with," she says. "With my kind of personality, I just did what I had to do." And since she has gone from a cancer patient to a cancer survivor, she has done what she's had to do and more. She has served as the mayor of Columbus' largest suburb, Upper Arlington, and donated hours of time and devotion to the board of the American Cancer Society. And from that role sprouted the Komen Columbus Race for the Cure, for which Perroti and two friends formed an executive board. She would serve as the organization's second president, but perhaps more importantly, she has served the Central Ohio community as a friend to that unfortunate sorority of women fighting breast cancer. "I've had a lot of personal involvement with people both inside the race and outside the race, people like newly diagnosed patients," Perotti says. The immediate fear after being diagnosed with cancer is that tragedy inevitably awaits them. "They look at me and know that's not the case." |
race for the cure  self-examination tool  newsletter fall / winter 2007
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