SEQUIM — Connecting with fellow cancer patients may be just what the doctor ordered for those affected by the malady.

And funky hats and a spot of tea never hurt.

That’s the idea behind today’s Mad Hatter’s Tea, to be held from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at SunLand Golf & Country Club, 109 Hilltop Drive.

The tea party will include refreshments, guest speakers and a performance by vocalist Janice Parks.

Admission to the 18th annual tea party is a donation of $30. Some space was still available as of Thursday. For information, call Stephanie Swensson at 360-681-8410.

Proceeds will be donated to Operation Uplift of Port Angeles and the Olympic Medical Cancer Center of Sequim.

Spectacular toppers

About 200 women wearing fine and sometimes ridiculous hats are expected to attend the fundraiser.

The tea party is a tradition dating back to October 1998, when friends of Jan Chatfield, who has since died, gathered together for a potluck in her honor, said Vonnie Putnam.

Putnam, 76, of Sequim is the chair of this year’s party and a breast cancer survivor of 18 years.

Chatfield, who was receiving chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer, wore a hat to the potluck because her hair had fallen out, Putnam said.

As a symbol of unity and encouragement, others began wearing hats at similar functions, she said.

“I don’t think anybody is prepared” to receive a cancer diagnosis, said Swensson, 69, of Sequim, a tea party committee member and breast cancer survivor of 25 years.

But cancer “is survivable,” she said.

And the annual tea is a place where cancer patients and survivors can find solace among those who have faced or are facing such trials and tribulations.

“You grow so much through a near-death experience,” Swensson said.

“You find a place in your heart to have compassion for so many people going through this, and the thing is, holding hands and telling each other you are going to make it” is key.

When the survivors stand up at the annual tea party, “there is just kind of an electricity that runs through the room,” said Thelma Sullock, 81, of Sequim, also a committee member.

“We have a lot of fun at this tea, but it is a little teary-eyed at times.”

Finding a lump

Putnam’s walk with cancer began when she found a lump during a self-exam.

“I was very fortunate,” she said.

“I found a lump, went to the doctor, and I found it early enough that I had to have a lumpectomy rather than a mastectomy, but I did have to go through chemo and radiation.”

A lumpectomy is a surgical operation to remove a cancerous lump from the breast when the cancer has not spread to surrounding tissues.

A mastectomy is the removal of a breast.

Swensson has a similar tale, but one that reinforces the importance of getting a second opinion.

Second opinion

In the early 1990s, “my girlfriend was teaching women how to find the lumps, and she had a fake breast and had us work it so that we could” learn what to look for, she said.

“That night, I worked mine and I found the lump.”

Swensson went to a doctor in San Diego, who diagnosed her with fibrocystic breasts, a fairly common and innocuous condition where breasts are composed of tissue that feels lumpy or rope-like in texture, according to the Mayo Clinic.

A year later, Swensson underwent a mammography exam performed by a second doctor, who concluded she indeed had breast cancer.

“By then, it had grown a bit, and when you see it on the mammogram, it is almost like the Milky Way,” she said.

Swensson decided to undergo a double mastectomy “because at that time, I wanted the cancer gone,” she said.

“The type of cancer I had was very fast-growing, and it was estrogen-hungry.”

As with Putnam, Swensson also had to undergo chemotherapy treatments.

Near the turn of the millennium, Swensson’s cancer returned.

“I found that by demonstrating to someone how to do a self-exam,” she said.

“What was interesting is that I had saline implants, and a lot of people think if you have mastectomies, you don’t have to check. But you do because you still have your skin. They can’t take it all away, and they can’t scrape it enough.”

The cancer cells “stayed tight in a little ball, and when the surgeon found it, he was amazed it hadn’t spread to my chest wall,” she said.

Citing their personal experience with cancer, both Putnam and Swensson advocate mammographies — both for women who have never had cancer and those who have survived treatments in the past.

“As much as I preach finding it yourself, women don’t do that,” Swensson said. “Women wait” because they are afraid.

New machines

And mammograms aren’t as unpleasant as they once were, Putnam said.

“It goes very fast. They have the new machines that do not give the pressure like they used to. There is still a lot of pressure, but it is not as bad,” she said.

Operation Uplift is a grass-roots support group for women and men with all types of cancer and offers free mammograms and breast health clinics.

The organization raised more than $20,000 during last year’s tea party and hopes to raise even more this year, Sullock said.

“We have a lot of fun with hats, and we have a lot of fun with tea . . . but the basic thing is, we are raising money so that it is going to be better and better for our future” generations, she said.

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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.