White House to Award Nation’s Highest Civilian Honor to Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Founder Nancy G. Brinker
WASHINGTON, DC – July 30, 2009 – Ambassador Nancy
Goodman Brinker, whose promise to her dying sister launched Susan G.
Komen for the Cure® and the worldwide breast cancer movement, today was
nominated for the highest civilian honor in the United States -- the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House announced today.
Brinker,
founder of the world’s leading breast cancer organization and a
Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control in the World Health
Organization, will receive the Medal from President Barack Obama at a
White House ceremony August 12.
She is being honored for her leadership in building Susan G. Komen
for the Cure into a global force for change for people with breast
cancer, leading the way in breast cancer research, advocacy, education
and outreach. With her vision, Dallas-based Komen for the Cure has
grown from a group of friends in a living room to an organization with
more than 120 domestic and global Affiliates, more than 1.5 million
advocates, and a presence in more than 50 countries.
“To say that I am honored, humbled and exhilarated is a vast
understatement,” Brinker said. “I will be pleased to accept this honor
in my sister’s memory, and on behalf of the millions of women and men
who have walked side-by-side with us over many years to end the
suffering and misery from this disease.”
Said Alexine Clement-Jackson, chairman of the Susan G. Komen for the
Cure Board of Directors: “Nancy Brinker embodies an American story --
a story of the tremendous good that can be achieved when people put
their minds to it. Today, millions of women and men owe their
recoveries, their treatments, their positive prognosis, their social
and psychological support, to the work that Nancy has achieved in her
sister’s memory. We are very proud of her – this is well-deserved.”
The story begins with a promise to her sister
Nancy
Brinker’s story began in Peoria, Illinois, with a promise to her
sister, Susan G. Komen, that she would do everything she could to end
breast cancer forever. Susan Komen died of breast cancer in 1980, at
the age of 36, after a three-year battle with the disease. Brinker was
herself diagnosed with breast cancer just two years later.
“At that time, there was a stigma and shame around breast cancer.
You didn’t talk about it. There were no 800-numbers, not internet. Our
government didn’t spend much on breast cancer research. There were few
major cancer centers with expertise about breast cancer. That’s the
world we faced when Suzy was diagnosed, it’s a world I watched her
suffer in, and it’s a world she wanted us to change,” Brinker said.
Determined to keep her promise, Brinker launched what was then
called the Susan G. Komen Foundation in 1982 from her living room in
Dallas. The name was changed to Susan G. Komen for the Cure in 2007.
At first, Brinker encountered embarrassed resistance to her plans to
raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research and education. “We
found that potential sponsors didn’t want to be associated with cancer,
especially a cancer of the breast. Papers didn’t want to print the
words ‘breast cancer.’ It was very much an uphill battle,” Brinker said.
Nevertheless, she persevered, and the first Susan G. Komen Race for
the Cure was run around a Dallas shopping mall with about 800 people.
Today, more than 1.5 million people run annually in Susan G. Komen Race
for the Cure events in more than 120 U.S. and 14 international cities.
This October, Komen will hold its first Race for the Cure around the
Giza Pyramids in Cairo.
Pioneer of cause-related marketing
Along the
way, Brinker pioneered the concept of “cause-related marketing” and
established the color pink as the iconic representation for breast
cancer. Today, almost 300 global and national companies are Komen
sponsors, providing funding for research, education, and outreach
programs.
All told, Komen has raised and invested more than $1.3 billion into
cutting-edge research and community outreach, education and support
programs.
Global health diplomacy
In 2001, Brinker was
named U.S. Ambassador to Hungary, where she enlisted the aid of the
U.S. State Department, local women, health professionals and
non-governmental organizations in what she terms “global health
diplomacy” to raise awareness for breast cancer in that country.
From there, Brinker and Komen launched an international breast
cancer movement, focused on low- to middle-income countries and
building a presence in 50 countries in high-need areas, including
Africa, Central and South America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Later, Brinker served as U.S. Chief of Protocol from 2007-2009, where
she continued to engage world leaders in the need for global cancer
control.
“We are, clearly, facing a global cancer crisis,” Brinker said.
“Cancer is already killing more people than AIDS, malaria and
tuberculosis combined. It is the second leading cause of death in the
world; cases are expected to triple in 30 years, and too little
attention is being paid to the human suffering and the social and
economic impacts of this disease.”