Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is a powerhouse—since Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker founded the organization in honor of her sister in 1982, the nonprofit has raised $3 billion and spread awareness.
But back in the ‘80s, it was a small organization screaming from the rooftops for support. Breast cancer was taboo, and Brinker—who received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Junior League of Boca Raton’s Woman Volunteer of the Year luncheon in November—remembers the obstacles she had to overcome.
Brinker shared that in the early days, she went to New York to meet with an executive at a fashion brand, seeing if they could do a collaboration. She was shut down.
“I’ll never forget it, she said, ‘Ms. Brinker, the meeting’s over. We don’t sell death and dying. We sell beauty. We sell beauty and glam. Therefore we will not be making a donation to your cause.’ I’ll never forget that day. I walked out of her office and it was raining and I started bawling.”
Part of the battle at the time was that even discussing breast cancer was taboo. Brinker says the word “breast” couldn’t be used on television, radio or newspapers, and it wasn’t considered a topic of polite conversation.
“It was not a word people were used to using, and there was still a lot of whispering about it. And so when we created the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, it was difficult in the beginning, because how can you educate [people] about a disease if you can’t talk about it without people flushing or leaving the room?”
The tide started to shift when prominent women came forward with their diagnoses. Just six weeks after President Gerald Ford took office in 1974, First Lady Betty Ford was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Rather than hide it, she went public; this was partially a response to Americans’ distrust in government, especially after the Watergate scandal.
In 1975, the first lady said, “Too many women are so afraid of breast cancer that they endanger their lives…These fears of being ‘less’ of a woman are very real, and it is very important to talk about the emotional side effects honestly. They must come out into the open.”
According to the Cancer History Project, her transparency led to the “Betty bump”—breast cancer diagnoses went up 15% as women were motivated to get a breast exam or mammogram. The first lady also received more than 50,000 pieces of mail from women thanking her or sharing their own breast cancer stories.
In 1987, First Lady Nancy Reagan was also diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Newspapers covered her surgery, and she shared that she wasn’t going to have reconstructive surgery.
“She was very aggressive in promoting early detection, and making people talk about it, and making people think about it,” said Karen Tumulty, the author of “The Triumph of Nancy Reagan.”
Fast forward to 2025, and women openly share that they have a mammogram appointment, October is awash in pink and breast cancer awareness walks, and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is one of the most prominent nonprofits in the country. While awareness and education is always top of mind, Brinker is now shifting her focus to access to healthcare, with the founding The Promise Fund. Since its founding in 2018, 10,000 women have been screened for breast and cervical cancer.
This Web Extra is from the February 2025 issue of Boca magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
