DIVER, MOTHER RELATE CANCER TRIUMPH

Wendy Lucero owes much of her success as the top-ranked springboard diver in the United States to her supportive and often exacting mother, Shirley.

But when Shirley learned in 1987 she had breast cancer, only eight months before the Olympic trials, Wendy's hopes of becoming an Olympic athlete were nearly dashed.

Both Shirley and Wendy shared their trial and triumph with about 350 women who attended the Womencare Conference Saturday at Southeast Missouri State University.

Wendy Lucero said the news of her mother's cancer was a devastating blow.

"My original reaction was that I can't show my emotion," she said. "But my first thought was, `Oh my God, she's going to die.'

"I was trying to keep a straight face and say it's OK, because I'm sure there are answers there's a way through this."

Shirley Lucero said her greatest concern when she learned of her cancer was for her family.

"When a person in a family gets cancer, it's not the person that gets it, it's the family," she said. "I'd always been so active and so healthy, and I knew they were waiting out in the room expecting everything to be fine.

"But I wasn't surprised, nor was I really concerned. My concern was for the people out there, because I had always been their mainstay."

Wendy, who was training in Florida for the Olympic trials at the time, immediately returned home to be with her mother and family.

She said she was willing to forfeit all the time and effort she'd devoted to diving in order to stay with her mother. But Shirley would have none of it.

"I didn't think of it as a life-or-death situation," said Shirley Lucero. "It was just a blip in my life as far as I was concerned. I was able to assure her that I was fine.

"I went into training just like she did. I expected her to, so I had no trouble expecting the same from myself."

Shirley Lucero was used to her inspirational role in her family. At age 34, she decided to become involved in athletics, primarily aerobics, running and weight lifting. She always believed example was the best teacher, she said.

"When she was younger, they never had athletics for women," said daughter Wendy. "She got started at 34. She was a big inspiration and I have to say she was my role model.

"I had to watch her struggle, and as a little kid I used to laugh at her. But she learned a lot. It wasn't just, `do it because I say so.'"

Shirley Lucero said her physical training and exercise helped her as much as anything to endure the diagnosis and treatment of her breast cancer.

Her innate familiarity with her body is what led her to continue to inquire about a lump on her breast that for 15 years doctors said was harmless. But Lucero was one of the 20 percent of women whose breast cancer isn't detected by mammograms.

Despite the doctors' assurances, she said the lump continued to nag her. "I kept going back and checking because I felt everything was not all right," she said.

Finally, a new gynecologist suggested an ultrasound, which determined that the lump was a solid mass. A subsequent biopsy found that Shirley's right breast was "full of cancer."

She said she spent the next several days reading as much information about breast cancer and its treatment as she could get her hands on, including reconstructive surgery for mastectomy patients.

She said that after reading the materials and talking to as many surgeons and medical professionals as she could, she no longer was afraid of treatment. "I didn't really feel afraid. I felt informed," she said.

Lucero said she learned what side effects to expect from her chemotherapy and how to ease them. She said volunteers for the American Cancer Society women who also had endured the experience of breast cancer helped immensely.

But her daughter Wendy also helped, particularly when she resumed her training and surprised herself and her family by winning a spot on the 1988 Olympic diving team.

"One thing I had that was very fortunate because I didn't look at it as a life-and-death situation I didn't feel the pressure some of the athletes did," Wendy Lucero said. "A lot of other teammates made it so important to make the Olympic team, and the pressure led to mistakes."

She said she had attained her goal of qualifying for the trials and felt no pressure to make the Olympic team. But one goal Wendy did set was to take her mother, who loves to travel, on a trip abroad.

"No matter what happened, I wanted to take her on an international trip. As it turned out, I was able to take her with me to the Olympics in Seoul, South Korea," she said.

As the top-ranked U.S. diver, Wendy already has qualified for the 1992 Olympic trials, and plans to again take her mother to the Olympics.

Now, nearly five years after the start of her bout with cancer, Shirley Lucero uses her experience to encourage women to take measures to monitor and improve their health.

"We women really do have to take control of our lives," she said. "Don't wait for someone else to tell you to get healthy or get thin. Decide yourself, then do it. Take your life and expand it as much as you can.

"The more informed you are, the less you fear and the more you can conquer anything that comes your way, and the more you'll be able to help other people conquer their fears."