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Statement from Nancy Brinker

February 9, 2012

 

 

Dear Friends and Family of SGK,

The events of the last week over our funding decisions have been extremely challenging for all of us. Most upsetting is that the controversy has overshadowed our unwavering commitment to helping detect, treat and, ultimately, cure breast cancer. For these recent distractions, we sincerely apologize.

I wanted to reach out to you personally to thank you for all that you have done to end suffering from this disease.

You have helped bring new, life-saving treatments to women – treatments that have helped reduce mortality rates from breast cancer by 31 percent in 20 years.

You have helped improve five-year survival rates to 99 percent for early stage breast cancers.

You are making possible the clinical trials, new treatments for aggressive and metastatic disease, and new discoveries that will help us understand the origins of breast cancer and one day stop it before it ever develops or spreads.

Very importantly, you have built a Komen community that watches out for one another and provides support to women and families during what is undoubtedly one of the most difficult times in their lives. Because of you, Komen and Komen Affiliates provided 700,000 screenings for low-resource women last year, and help 100,000 women and families with financial and emotional support. As advocates, you helped Komen save or restore almost $100 million in funding for government screening programs benefitting low-income women.

Every day, I hear from a woman, somewhere, thanking us for helping her with her screening, her biopsy or treatment; thanking us for providing hope and help, and for providing the community that shares her pain and triumphs. As a breast cancer survivor myself, I know how important this help is, and I have made it my life’s work to put these programs in place for women everywhere.

Susan G. Komen and our network of Komen Affiliates have served low-income, uninsured or underinsured women for 30 years. We would never have left these women without resources or help, and we never will.  That includes women served at Planned Parenthood clinics, which continue to receive Komen funding today and which will be eligible to receive grants under the same guidelines that existed last year.

You know that Susan G. Komen is important. Because you are Susan G. Komen.  Thanks to the generosity and commitment of people such as yourself, no other organization has done more, on such a broad scale, to fund research and tend to the real-world needs of women facing this disease.  We have some mending of fences to do, but I hope that you know that we are as committed as ever to supporting critical research and taking care of the vulnerable women who rely on us. For the women we serve and the shared mission of eradicating and curing breast cancer, I hope that you will continue to stand with us.

 

Very truly yours,

Nancy Brinker