Meet Geri Barish: A Leading Long Island Advocate Against Breast Cancer

To call Geri Barish a reluctant activist would be an understatement. Barish, who has been at the forefront of breast cancer awareness, legislation and activism for more than 40 years, didn’t think much about cancer until her elder son, 13-year-old Michael, developed Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It was a mother’s love that compelled her into activism — for him.

“We didn’t even talk about cancer before that,” Barish remembers. “If you did, you whispered it. I remember sitting in a room with other parents in the hospital. There were 25 children there who had cancer. The room was sort of dirty, and it wasn’t comfortable. We wanted answers.”

She marched to the office of the president of the hospital and demanded to speak to him. She overheard the secretary say, “I have an hysterical mother out here.” Her response: “Of course, I am hysterical,” says Barish, whose mother also died of breast cancer. “You would be too if your child had cancer. I was incensed.”

She hasn’t stopped fighting since that day.

“I still remember the look in his eyes as he asked me, ‘What did I do wrong? Why do I have cancer?’” she says of the day that nearly broke her heart. She did begin to wonder why they didn’t know more about cancers. They didn’t know about side effects, or even how many rounds of treatment were reasonable. “He had 58 treatments. Now, you don’t have more than eight.”

Michael, who needed a double lung and heart transplants, died at 25. The day he died, Barish found out she had breast cancer. This also was the day that she declared war on cancer — in memory of Michael. She was supposed to start radiation the day of his funeral. She visited Washington to testify about what was wrong with current cancer treatments and research. On the day she was to testify before Congress, she was met by New York State Congresswoman Bella Abzug.

“She said I was from the breast cancer capital of the world,” says Barish, who had moved to Long Island from the Bronx when she was 8 years old. “It was the right words and they hit home.” That was many years and many challenges ago. In 1990, Barish founded 1 in 9, The Long Island Breast Cancer Action Coalition. Today, Barish, who is cancer free, is determined to help everyone understand their cancer risks.

“Many cancers are hormonal cancers,” Barish explains. “You have a man with prostate cancer whose daughter gets breast cancer. Both are hormonal cancers. You have to know your history. You have to talk about it, with your parents, with your children. You can’t be quiet.”

Barish says that not all her efforts were appreciated at the time. For example, the NYS Pesticide Registry was not popular when they began working to get it enacted. The day she testified in front of the Suffolk County Legislature and came home and went to dinner with her family, she returned home to all the glass in her windows and doors broken.

“It was just enough to scare the hell out of you,” Barish remembers. Oddly, most of those in the audience the day she testified were gardeners who didn’t want anyone telling them to use less pesticide on their lawns and gardens. Barish, who this month was honored with a lifetime achievement award, was the driving force behind free mammograms, which was passed while Bill Clinton was president. She also founded the Hewlett House resource center where anyone with any kind of cancer can come and receive information, support and assistance. She also was the catalyst behind forcing insurance companies to reclassify breast cancer-related surgery as reconstructive instead of cosmetic, which meant it would be covered by one’s insurance.

Her current focus is on women of color, who are the fastest-growing population of those who develop cancer. Her goal is that all women know their history and their risk factors and get regular screenings. While she is cancer free, Barish still remembers the support she received and the group of women with cancer who went through it with her. She even remembers a trip the five of them took one day because they wanted to think about something other than their cancer.

“We always thought of the Hamptons as that place where rich people lived,” Barish remembers of the group of them sitting around one day. “We decided then and there we’d go to the Hamptons one day. We did. If I could find just the right word for being in the Hamptons — peaceful.”

Barish said they’d all heard about the Hamptons but had never been there.

“The five of us just drove around,” Barish remembers. “This was a place we could go, not far, but like a vacation we could go on as a group.”

She has gone to the Hamptons many times since then, and says the feeling of peace is the same. Another place that affords her peace is Hewlett House, a community learning resource center for cancer patients and their families in Hewlett (516-374-2385, 86 East Rockaway Road, hewlett-house.org). She is the organization’s executive director.

Patrons come to Hewlett House for networking and accurate information in a comfortable, safe environment. Patients share and learn to come to terms with their cancer and treatments. It is a multi-purpose, professionally staffed facility in a home-like setting, for cancer victims and their family and friends.  Started in 1998 for breast cancer patients, it expanded to include all cancer patients in 2000. All of their services are free of charge and provided through donations. To date, they have served more than 37,000 patients.

“We are involved with all kinds of cancer and offer an open door to all,” Barish explains. She also is working for various pieces of legislation to help those with cancer, including for a blood test that can recognize 93 different cancers. Does she have any plans to stop? None. “I made a promise to Michael that I wouldn’t stop until we found a cure for cancer, she says. “I’m not stopping until I keep my promise to him.”

Todd Shapiro is an award-winning publicist and associate publisher of Dan’s Papers.