Photographs courtesy of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
 

Nancy Brinker

Fight To Promise: Devoted sister Nancy Brinker honors the memory of Susan G. Komen by working steadfastly toward a world without breast cancer

By Emily Powell

 
Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and George W. Bush recognized her passion and enthusiasm. They appointed her to myriad advisory committees, as well as making her the ambassador to the Republic of Hungry. Biography magazine named her one of the 25 most powerful women in the world, and Ladies Home Journal included her on its list of the 100 most important women of the twentieth century.

Even so, Nancy Goodman Brinker says her most important achievement was the foundation of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, one of the largest breast cancer-fighting organizations in the world.

Brinker started the Komen Foundation in 1982, two years after her sister, Suzy, died of breast cancer at the age of 36. Nancy promised that she would fulfill her sister’s plea to help others facing a breast cancer diagnosis. With $200, a group of friends in her living room, and a promise to her sister in her heart, Brinker started the foundation with the traditional fundraising luncheons and dinners to raise money for research grants.

“We soon realized that we needed to do more than raise money - we had to raise awareness,” Brinker says. These committed women created the Komen Foundation Affiliate Network, a grassroots network of volunteers dedicated to fighting cancer. “We couldn’t have come this far without that selfless and endless support,” Brinker continues. As of this year, together with its Affiliate Network, corporate partners, and generous donors, the Komen Foundation has raised more than $740 million for the fight against breast cancer.

Brinker faced another great challenge in recruiting corporate sponsors. “It certainly wasn’t easy in the early years. People didn’t even want to say the words ‘breast cancer.’ On an early recruitment trip to New York, I was looking for corporate angels to help with the mission of the Komen Foundation, and I was told that breast cancer was ‘negative marketing.’ It was a tough sell.”

Eventually, corporations began to embrace the cause. Brinker explains that the combination of an increasing number of women in the work force, women’s increasing economic impact, and the higher number of women being diagnosed with breast cancer gave companies the confidence to invest in the foundation. “We were giving them the opportunity to reach women through their hearts and minds as well as their pocketbooks - and do the right thing at the same time.”

In 1983, the organization started the Komen Race for the Cure^®. Now the largest series of 5K run/fitness walks in the world, it began in Dallas with one race of 800 participants. Since then, the series has grown to a national series of 112 races with 1.4 million participants. “This was a grassroots event that from the beginning cut across all the lines of demographics - age, gender, economics, and race. It encouraged participation as a volunteer, runner, planner, promoter, survivor - any help was needed and welcome. Every contribution along the way, whether of time, talent, or money has made a difference,” Brinker says.

Brinker is admired worldwide for being the founder of such a long-lasting effort. When she relinquished the reigns of the day-to-day operations to pursue other ventures, the foundation remained a united force for the fight against breast cancer. In fact, support for its programs and research increases every year. Brinker attributes the achievements to the people involved. “I must go back to the selfless dedication of the Komen volunteers and sponsors who have made this such a success.”

Linda Cadigan, Brinker’s first executive director at the foundation, says she believes the ultimate reason for the foundation’s success was breast cancer itself. “The real reason it has sustained itself is that it is a major killer of women. Millions of people care about breast cancer. When people are putting money down, when they can see what their money can do, they feel confident that it will achieve the ultimate goal. At the end of the day, we all want to put the foundation out of business by curing cancer.”

In a message on the foundation website this year, Brinker notes the fact that the foundation is celebrating 20 years of patient advocacy, building awareness, and raising funds for innovative research and community outreach programs. “In the process,” she says, “we’re renewing our promise in the fight against breast cancer - to remain dedicated to advancing research, education, screening, and treatment. We are steadfast in our faith that one day we will truly have something to celebrate: a world without breast cancer.”

Asked if we will one day see the end of breast cancer as a killer of women, Nancy Goodman Brinker answers in just three words: “Counting on it.”