Breast Cancer Survivor Donates Scarves to Cancer Patients

When Maria Luisa Gonzalez, a Chicago school teacher, was told she had stage 2 breast cancer last winter, the diagnosis hit her like a ton of bricks.

“I felt like time just stopped and I didn’t hear anything else,” Maria Luisa said.

Over the following months, Maria Luisa Gonzalez received treatment from Ann Mauer, MD, and Rosalinda Alvarado, MD, of Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center’s breast cancer team.

Maria Luisa has been cancer-free since October, but she made a special return trip to Illinois Masonic ahead of Mother’s Day to give out head scarves to women in Illinois Masonic’s infusion center who are battling breast cancer.

“Losing my hair was a profound moment for me because it was the first time I realized that life would be different,” Maria Luisa says. “When I received my first head scarf as a cancer patient, it was such a meaningful moment.”

Maria Luisa plans to make this effort a more formal endeavor by starting the “Courage for the Soul” organization, which will continue to collect scarves for breast cancer patients.