Kathy LaTour, a breast cancer survivor and author of The Breast Cancer Companion, performs her one-woman show, One Mutant Cell, across the country.
After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1986 at age 37, LaTour found that she could not accept her physicians’ admonitions to move on with her life as if nothing had happened. She’d had a mastectomy and underwent four months of chemotherapy. She had a one-year old daughter and she feared that she would not live to raise her because of a recurrence, now recognized as the number one issue for cancer survivors.
Then, in 1989, her surgeon told her that she had begun a support group for patients because she felt that they needed emotional healing as well as physical healing. This led LaTour to a life-changing mission to understand how the cancer journey affects us from the day we are diagnosed and for the rest of our lives.
Since the publication of The Breast Cancer Companion in 1993, LaTour has spoken across the country and in Canada about surviving cancer. She explores the idea that cancer is a dual experience—medical and emotional—and that genuine healing comes from an integrative approach to cancer, recognizing that our bodies are only one aspect of ourselves.
In 2004, she premiered her one-woman show, One Mutant Cell, which takes the audience on her journey.