Cancer patient denied photo with hair
Joanne Jodry of Neptune City was diagnosed last year with stage 2 breast cancer and recently had one of the worst experiences at the Motor Vehicle Commission.
Jodry had a double mastectomy and has been undergoing heavy chemotherapy that has caused her to lose her hair.
Her driver's license was expiring and she went to the MVC facility in Freehold to get a new one.
She assumed she could use the photo from her expiring license -- which depicts a healthy Joanne, her long and dark hair visible for her new license.
Jodry was wrong: She would need to have a new photo taken.
She was a wearing a scarf on her head that day, and she said she didn't want to have to look at that picture every time she opened her wallet.
“I just gone with my mom and everyone else that I knew had just used last year’s license so I was going to do the same thing and when I got there they told me I had to take a new picture and I said ‘I have cancer’ and I said ‘I look sick and I don’t want my identification to look sick, so I can use last times?’ and the women said ‘That’s our policy, that’s what it is,” Jodry said.
The MVC's policy states that you must get a new picture every eight years in New Jersey.
Jodry was forced to take a new photo and was so humiliated that she got emotional right there at the MVC along with her daughter.
“The only thing that I would like is to have my old picture on my driver’s license that would be nice but even more so then that I would like them to change the policy. They’re dehumanizing people,” Jodry said.
MVC had no comment on this specific case.