Stacey’s Story

When Stacey Schultz was diagnosed with cancer she didn’t cry. But when told she was going lose her hair, she admits “I bawled my eyes out”.

Her cancer nurse suggested attending a free Look Good Feel Better class, so the Whangarei secondary school teacher joined a Zoom session on skincare and make-up, and she followed up with one on hair loss and regrowth.

“During the Zoom, I did not show my face. I had no guts because my hair was falling out already. It was killing me, it was the worst thing at that stage,” she says.

But the session proved to be transformational for Stacey’s outlook.

“After the Zoom, I was like, ‘Actually, Stacey, you need to rethink your priorities in life. You need to rethink what is important. Strategise again. Because there were people on that Zoom that just showed up bald, and beautiful. You realise how many people are actually going through the same thing. You’re not alone.

“I have my sister but she has a family. I don’t have children. I don’t have a partner.

The conversation went from ‘what are you doing on a weekend?’ to turning only towards cancer,” the 31-year-old says.

“When you go through it you feel utterly shocked, you feel broken, you feel like life has been taken away from you.”

This was more apparent for Stacey as she had immigrated to New Zealand from South Africa less than a year before and knew few people other than her sister – who has a young family – and the pupils she taught.

“But then when you go on the Zoom, you see everybody and and they smiling and they are trying different things.  I saw that I’m not alone. Regardless of how bad a day I would have, there is always support.

“It helped me relax, and helped me understand that makeup is not the only aspect to a person, but it is an enhancement,” she says.

Now Stacey uses a range of Look Good Feel Better sessions to feel more connected. It is an online programme that receives funding from people who donatee during Dry July.

“I’m very honest with the pupils. They have become honest with me, they will tell me ‘Miss, you’re really grumpy today’ and then I’ll say. ‘Yes, I’m really having a bad day. So excuse me.’

“I want my students to understand we are who we are. What we put into the universe is what defines us. It’s not what other people think. It’s not what other people see. Cancer does not define you, you’re still a person.”

With her chemotherapy completed and having undergone surgery, Stacey is now looking forward to healing with the help of Look Good Feel Better classes.

“I have already gone to look ahead of time to see which Zoom meetings I can go on to and what will be available,” she says. “You don’t feel like just another cancer patient to Look Good Feel Better. You actually do matter.”