In the Business of Fighting Cancer

The wigs hit the counter of the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop with a note of finality.

Jane Ancona looked up at the donor, a young woman with short, Twiggy-style hair who managed to look anxious and victorious at the same time, and felt an immediate bond.

“I saw this woman with 3 or 4 inches of hair growing back in,” said Ancona, a survivor of breast cancer who volunteers at the shop, “with this attitude of ‘I’m done with my chemo, I’m done with my bald head.’ ”

The Discovery Shop at 27281 E. La Paz Road, Laguna Niguel, sells upscale “gently used” clothes and furniture, but its business is fighting cancer. Just ask the store’s 60 volunteers, about 75% of whom have survived their own battles with the killer disease.

“It’s not like we talk about it to each other in the shop,” said Kaybee Lipton, a volunteer at the group’s Corona del Mar store, at 2600 Coast Highway, who has beaten cancer five times. “But that’s why we’re here. Cancer is never going to end unless we have money for research.”

The two Orange County shops raise $148,000 annually for research and help fund a program that offers cancer patients transportation to medical appointments. Shop proceeds also buy medical equipment for patients battling cancer at home.

At least once a week, Nikki and Caitlyn Miller are brought from their Anaheim apartment to Children’s Hospital of Orange County, in Orange. There, 16-month-old Caitlyn receives therapy for a rare form of kidney cancer.

The service leaves Miller, a single mother of three, with one less worry. Before she enrolled in the program, “I didn’t know what my plans were. I didn’t know how to get Caitlyn back and forth,” Miller said. “I feel like the society is almost as much responsible for my daughter being alive as her doctor.”

Information: (714) 477-0464. The American Cancer Society’s Web site address is https://www.cancer.org.