LAWRENCE — Margaret Kuliga is a breast cancer survivor who has made it her life's mission to help poor women detect the disease early.
Kuliga, 50, was hired by the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center at 34 Haverhill St. to establish a mammography department. She said in the two years since the center has been open, 5,786 women have had mammograms there.
Her patients range in age from 24 to 92, most of whom are Hispanics. To ease their fears about the mammogram, she took Spanish classes and a medical course in Spanish, both at Northern Essex Community College.
She is most happy seeing those who come back year after year.
"It energizes me and reaffirms that this is where I need to be," she said.
"I know that I survived my cancer to be here and if my personality and wit makes them come back every year, I was truly meant to do this job," she said.
Kuliga's own breast cancer was detected in August 2002 as a result of a mammogram.
"I was just in shock," Kuliga said. "I took myself to the very end, the headstone. I'm a scientist and I question."
Kuliga said she was never upset at God.
"It was in the stars. Mother Nature was guiding me. This is something that I could have never anticipated or prevented."
She had surgery on Sept. 11, 2002, at Boston Medical Center, followed by six months of treatment.
Kuliga said her worst fear was getting chemotherapy. "It does a number on your body and psychologically. To lose your hair and your breast is taking a lot of your femininity away. Your self-esteem can take a hit on that," she said.
But it has been those fears, struggles and perseverance that makes her suitable for the job.
Kuliga eases her patients' fears and apprehension as soon as they walk in. She calls them, "mi reina," Spanish for queen, rubs their backs, and compliments them on how brave they are to come in.
She also shares her own experience with breast cancer.
"After my treatment and the new job, I learned to hold people up, take my positive energy and pass it on," she said.
Kuliga got another scare last year with the same breast, but doctors found the tumor to be benign. She had surgery a week ago and returned to work shortly thereafter.
Her illness has made her set her priorities.
"I realize that things can be taken from you at any time, so you have to live every day, loving and caring and making lots of memories," Kuliga said. "The biggest lesson was waking up every day being a good person and doing good things for others."
Kuliga lives in Exeter, N.H., with her husband, Paul, and daughter, Lily, 12.
In addition to teaching about the importance of mammograms, Kuliga finds freedom by donning pink chaps, a black-and-pink Harley-Davidson jacket, and a pink scarf to ride a black motorcycle with pink details. She also enjoys skiing.
Kuliga followed her parents' footsteps in the medical field. Her father was an X-ray technician and her mother was a nurse.
She received a degree in radiology sciences from Northeastern University in 1978 and trained at the former Boston City Hospital. Before becoming a radiologist, she ran a bed and breakfast.
She then worked weekends in the trauma department at Cambridge Hospital. On Mondays, she performed mammographies. People were soon saying, "Maggie does mammographies on Mondays."
It wasn't until her own battle with cancer that she said she was inspired to make it her mission to urge women to have mammograms.
After Cambridge, she worked at Elliot Hospital in Manchester, N.H., and then moved to the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center.
The $110,000 mammography clinic was paid for by contributions from the New Balance Foundation and the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.
The clinic features a digital imaging machine. She said having the machine on site means the health center can send the results to doctors quickly. Kuliga works with Mirta Matos, mammography coordinator, and Silvia Cata, nurse educator.
