[© THE STATE]
By LINDA H. LAMB
Rachel Hodges read stories to school children. Lois West sometimes was her husband’s chauffeur. And Maude Byrnes said being South Carolina’s first lady didn’t involve any special ambition on her part. “My husband is my career,” Byrnes said during the 1950s, evidently having a decade that was quite different from Betty Friedan’s. Jenny Sanford, the state’s current first lady, is staking out what she hopes will be a life-changing legacy for her family—and your family, too.
Sanford believes strongly in people’s power to improve their own health, and she’s especially emphatic on the subjects of nutrition, exercise and cancer prevention. Already a partner with Gov. Mark Sanford in creating a health-conscious lifestyle for their four sons, she wants to encourage other South Carolinians to do likewise. “I came to this office as somebody who’s just married to the guy that’s here,” Jenny Sanford said. “I have no agenda. I never have had an agenda, but I have always been passionate about my health.” A brief scrutiny of state health statistics suggests most South Carolinians have passions that lie elsewhere. Possibly, we’re passionate about eating barbecue and fried chicken. Probably, we’re passionate about relaxing in air-conditioned living rooms, exerting ourselves occasionally to reach for the TV remote.
The wages of these sins: death from heart disease, strokes and diabetes, along with high rates of several types of cancer. Close to a third of S.C. residents have high blood pressure, more than a third have high cholesterol, about 25 percent are smokers, 60 percent are overweight or obese, and about 9 percent have diabetes, one of the highest rates in the nation. People may debate the extent to which a governor’s wife can change any of this. They may question whether some of Jenny Sanford’s health-advocacy projects are at odds with Mark Sanford’s less-is-more approach to state government. However, there’s no doubt that the first lady is attempting to tackle an important, life-and-death issue in ways that go beyond just showing up at the occasional charity fundraiser. She has participated in serious organizations such as the South Carolina Cancer Alliance. She serves on the advisory board of the Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina. She is the force behind the Healthy South Carolina Web site, which holds fitness challenges and e-mails health tips to 1,000 South Carolinians weekly. “I think she exerts an enormous influence,” said James Hebert, a University of South Carolina epidemiologist who holds multiple positions, including director of the Statewide Cancer Prevention & Control Program.
“My experience with smart lay people who are involved in things like this is that they usually have something in their family that drives their interest,” Hebert added.
FAMILY A FACTOR
That’s true of Jenny Sanford.
“My mom is one of six children, five of whom have had cancer,” she said, taking occasional sips from a water bottle during a recent interview in the Caldwell Boylston House on the grounds of the Governor’s Mansion. Sanford, 43, is from Winnetka, Ill. She said her mother has battled melanoma, or skin cancer, for 30 years, and other relatives have dealt with colon, stomach and breast cancer.
Cancer usually involves a complex relationship between genetic tendencies and environmental factors, she found as she read up on the disease. While it’s useful to know your family history, there’s nothing you can do to change it, she realized. “The only other thing you can do to significantly impact your health is to eat well and live well,” Sanford said. “And so that’s what I try to do, and get my kids to do.”
Known for being brisk and direct, Sanford can be engaging when discussing health in the context of her family’s experiences. For example, she charmed a gathering of cancer researchers in 2003 as the S.C. Alliance for Cancer Chemoprevention met for a symposium at the University of South Carolina. Scheduled only to give welcoming remarks, she launched into a description of her mother’s battles with skin cancer. It might not sound entertaining. Yet Sanford generated laughs and empathy as she drew a vivid picture of her mother, not just as a cancer survivor but as an intrepid woman who creatively concocts her own sunscreen lotions.
“It was the first time I’ve been in a place where a first lady really opened up and made it acutely personal,” said Michael Wargovich, an internationally known USC researcher and a founder of the cancer chemoprevention group. “Her personal experiences obviously play into a better understanding of the subject,” Wargovich said. He added that Sanford’s appearance was a morale booster for the group and helped underline the fact that high cancer rates are a statewide problem requiring statewide solutions. “First ladies…are looked on as celebrities,” said Kaye E. McCoy of the Palmetto Health Foundation. “I think people feel it’s the next best thing to having the governor there.” McCoy recalled going to the Governor’s Mansion for a meeting for the First Ladies’ Walk for Life, a breast-cancer fundraiser, and seeing bicycles, footballs and soccer gear piled by the front door. It was a reminder that the first lady is one “celebrity” who balances her duties with a busy life as mother of four active boys. Helen Milliken of Columbia—author of a book on S.C. first ladies and source of the Maude Byrnes quote—said first ladies’ contributions vary with their personalities. But like Miss America contestants, they’re now expected to espouse a cause of some sort. In the Sanfords’ case, “it sounds like she’s certainly his intellectual equal, and it would be silly for her not to use her intellect in a meaningful way,” Milliken said. Hebert said the whole first family seems to set a good example for South Carolinians. The governor is an avid runner. And in promoting the Healthy South Carolina Challenge—an effort to reward the S.C. county that improves its health status the most—the family has gone on biking and kayaking expeditions. “They’re in good shape, they exercise as a family…they don’t look like couch potatoes,” Hebert said. “They
obviously make an effort to practice what they preach.” Jenny Sanford said her responsibilities as a mom often conflict with speaking engagements and other events at which her presence is desired. “It is a constant struggle, and I tell people all the time, ‘My kids come first,’” she said. Sometimes, the kids come along. Sanford taped a TV spot to promote a Feb. 18 health fair at the USC medical school. By late morning, a small crowd eagerly awaited her appearance. A little past noon, in came the first lady in jeans and a casual sweater—fresh from son Landon’s soccer game and with all four boys in tow. As she mingled, posed for photos and gave a TV interview, the boys checked out the exhibits. Though eager to go see USC and Kentucky play basketball that afternoon, they gamely took part in a session of “gospel aerobics” with their willowy mom joining in.
“You can tell they’ve been to things like that before,” she said later. One group Sanford has been involved with since her husband served in Congress is the Virginia-based Cancer Research Prevention Foundation. Founder Carolyn “Bo” Aldige said through involvement in such groups, politicians’ spouses can be influential without being controversial. “These are issues that really transcend politics,” Aldige said. Alan Waln of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, former director of the
S.C. Cancer Alliance, agreed. “She cuts across partisan lines,” he said of Sanford. “That’s one thing a first lady can do that often a governor can’t do quite as well.”
BYPASSING POLITICS?
DHEC covers the cost of a part-time employee who directs the Healthy South Carolina project day to day. This first lady managed all her husband’s political campaigns except his current one. She also has helped with administrative duties at the governor’s request.
“I’m not personally going to advocate policy,” she said, though most observers assume she does and some wish she would do more of it.
“It’s one thing to speak out; it’s another thing to be engaged,” said Dr. Gerald Wilson, a Columbia surgeon and president of the S.C. Medical Association. While chatting with people at that USC health fair, Wilson commended the first lady’s interest in health issues but said he finds an ironic contrast between her advocacy and some of the governor’s policies. For example, Wilson said the governor promotes a Medicaid policy that Wilson sees as a threat to adequate care for poor South Carolinians. “I think he tends to look at things from an economic standpoint,” Wilson said. At times this has been painfully obvious to ardent advocates for issues that do not easily lend themselves to economic solutions. Mental health is a good example. With fewer beds for long-term care of mental patients, some families in recent years have faced agonizing waits in crowded emergency rooms as loved ones languish with minimal care. Waits of as long as 16 days have been reported. Yet mental health advocates say the governor has seemed focused less on care than on cost-cutting measures and on possible benefits from selling Department of Mental Health property, including the Bull Street parcel that’s on the verge of being developed now.
“There is no doubt we could use people with high profiles” as advocates, said David Almeida, state director for the National Alliance for Mental Illness. He and fellow advocate Joel Wier said they dream of what they could do with the active support of someone like the USC football coach—or the governor’s wife. “Jenny Sanford could do wonders for our cause,” Almeida said. “Just by associating herself with it, she would encourage people to not only seek treatment, but advocate for better treatment.”It does seem as if she’s gravitated to the more mainstream causes,” Almeida added. “These are easy, and from a political standpoint, no-brainers. While the families of people with mental illnesses are voters, many people with mental illnesses are not. That’s not the same for people with cancer.” Sanford said her family’s experience with toxic mold in the Governor’s Mansion—which forced them to move out for a time in 2004—inspired a new interest in allergies and air-quality issues. But she said she can’t be an effective health advocate if she tries to take on too much.
“We have a host of complicated issues in our state,” she said. “It is not my goal to solve all problems or to attack all problems.” John Polito, a Mount Pleasant anti-smoking activist and founder of whyquit.com, has supplied smoking-cessation tips for the Healthy South Carolina Web site. He praised the governor’s recent signing of a law increasing penalties for stores that sell tobacco to minors. But he said abundant in-store tobacco ads, plus a lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax, constantly encourage kids to become tobacco addicts.
“We’re a tobacco state, and the reality is that we’re protecting jobs over children,” Polito said. Jenny Sanford said that while she views smoking as a health threat, pressing for specific policies such as a higher cigarette tax is not her job. “People come to me all the time and ask me to advocate certain things, but that’s not my role,” she said. “My husband is the policy maker.”
APPLES, NOT OREOS
Like most women, she serves as gatekeeper for her own family’s health. While the Sanfords’ affluence sets them apart from many South Carolinians — when the mold cropped up, they could retreat to their home on Sullivan’s Island — keeping four kids healthy would be a challenge for anyone. Sanford said the family has learned to like whole-wheat pasta, brown rice instead of white, and ground turkey instead of beef in spaghetti sauce. The boys don’t get a lot of fast food, and she urges them to snack on apples instead of Oreos. It sounds like she’s still working on the governor, though. He said he loves cheeseburgers and fries—he figures he’ll jog off the calories—and still is learning about things like trans fats. When it comes to Oreo cookies, “I eat ‘em by the sleeve,” he said. But he said he applauds his wife’s work and considers it “incredibly important” for the state.
Echoing that, her friend Dr. Ann Kulze of Charleston, a health-book author, cited the Sanfords’ recent alliance with an AME Church initiative. The Sanfords understand the underprivileged have the most to gain from taking more responsibility for their health, Kulze said.
Jenny Sanford walks, lifts weights and takes yoga, usually fitting in those activities while the boys are in school. She’s working on plans for a sun-protection-awareness program in S.C. schools, in connection with Aldige’s group, and on the wrap-up of the Healthy South Carolina Challenge. (Residents of the winning county will be invited to the Governor’s Mansion.) While the state’s health needs are huge and part of a national trend toward chronic diseases and sedentary lifestyles, Sanford said she’s not discouraged. “I actually feel quite the opposite,” she said. “I feel energized that we really need to do what we can to make a difference.”