Kate Sommer

Kate Sommer is a two-time breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed when she was 30 years old. Shortly before her recurrence 5 years later, a friend asked her if she had ever heard of the Susan G. Race for the Cure®. Kate went on to start the Nebraska Race for the Cure in 1994 and was a founding board member in 2002. Her commitment to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Nebraska Affiliate has never wavered.

In her acceptance speech for the Governor's Point of Light Award that she received for her volunteer efforts for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Kate said "Since stepping foot on the Mall in Washington D.C. back in 1992, I made the promise also, to my daughter, my mother and my aunt (both survivors), my sisters and female relatives, and eventually to the women of Nebraska. I assume an active role in Komen for the Cure because I believe that its mission is my mission. Its promise and vision has become mine as well.

The cure for breast cancer will come from the hard work and dedication of volunteers who raise not only money for, but awareness of the disease. One Race, one fundraising event can tip the scales in providing dollars to fund some additional grant project that finds the cure.

Each one of us here today has the individual power to do great things, to affect change, to make life better for all human beings. If you don't believe that is true, then you just haven't been tested yet. When we take the power of one individual and join it to another and another and another, we generate an unstoppable force.

When I chaired the first Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, my family saw little of me, and when they did see me, I had a phone receiver attached to my ear. After the Race was over, I continued to attend meetings and answer incessant phone calls. So, my daughter, then 11 years old, said to me, "I thought the Race was over, Mom!"

Well the Race is not over and will not be over until we find a cure and finally live in a world without breast cancer."