Message From Our Founder
As I look back over the more than 25 years since I founded Susan G. Komen for the Cure, I am amazed at our accomplishments. What began as a promise to my dying sister, Susan G. Komen, has evolved into the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures.
I am in awe of our victories over the last two decades. We began the global breast cancer movement. We started the Komen Race for the Cure®, the most successful fundraising and education event for breast cancer ever created; pioneered cause-related marketing; created Komen Affiliates serving the breast health needs of millions in their communities; developed educational tools to reach people in more than 200 countries; and became the world’s largest source of private funds for breast cancer research and community outreach programs with more than $1.2 billion invested to date.
We’re proud of the fact that we don’t simply dump funds and run. We create activists – one person, one community, one state, one nation at a time – to try and solve the number one health concern of women. I am so proud of the work done by the Komen Affiliates who reach into their communities to keep the subject of breast cancer high in the public consciousness. With the help of Komen Affiliates, corporate partners, individual donors, Komen staff and activists, we’ve saved millions of lives, making the 2.5 million breast cancer survivors the largest group of cancer survivors today.
The sad reality is there is still tremendous work to be done. We don’t know what causes breast cancer, and we don’t know how to prevent it. Women are still dying unnecessarily in our own backyards. And on the global front, the situation is worse. Ten million women around the world could die from breast cancer in the next 25 years. Cancer already claims twice as many lives as AIDS worldwide. At least seven million people die of cancer each year and close to 11 million new cases are diagnosed. That's more than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.
We have come a long way in our fight. When we started, the five-year survival rate was just 74 percent when breast cancer was diagnosed before it spread beyond the breast. Today, that survival rate is 98 percent. Nearly 75 percent of women over the age of 40 now receive regular mammograms compared to just 30 percent in 1982. Now it's time to take an even more aggressive stance. We must raise the expectations of science, of institutions and ourselves.
We are so close to creating a world without breast cancer. The science is there. Now is the time for us to see this fight through so that no one ever has to fear breast cancer again.
We’re on a mission, but we can’t get there without you. We have a multitude of ways you can support Komen and our cause. Please take a moment to peruse our website to find a way that is comfortable for you to participate. Thank you for your consideration and continued support.
With love and gratitude,
Nancy G. Brinker
Founder