Susan G. Komen Founder, Nancy Brinker | National Women's Hall of Fame Inductee
The Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure has become the largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors, advocates for prevention and initiatives for funding breast cancer research. Founded in 1982 and named after her sister, who lost the battle with cancer, Nancy Brinker fought to grow the Susan G. Komen Foundation in a time when printing the words "breast" and "cancer" was taboo. This was also a time during which very little information about breast cancer existed and virtually no support groups for cancer patients and their family members existed.
Because of Nancy’s relentless dedication to the promise she made her sister, breast cancer rates have declined 34% in the last 20 years and a wealth of new information about different types of breast cancer cells has been discovered as a result of Susan G. Komen's Scientific Research Grants. She went on to be honored the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama, one of Time Magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People,’ co-founded the Pink Ribbon-Red Ribbon initiative and organized Race for the Cure. More than a million people all over the world now participate in Race for the Cure. In additon to these amazing accomplishments over the span of her career, Nancy will be one of ten women to be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame!
“I’m proud to say that almost every significant advance in the science of breast cancer was touched or funded by a Susan G. Komen grant.”
