Promise Me (44 page)
Authors: Nancy G. Brinker
We’d hoped for two thousand participants. Ten thousand people came.
As I traveled to Israel and beyond in the following weeks, I felt the clock turn back. A familiar sense of opportunity shivered down my spine. And then the monkey chorus of old doubts reminded me that I’m not as young as I used to be. The necessary commitment, effort, and creative energy are daunting, and to be perfectly frank, my feet hurt.
Well
, I hear Suzy tease à la Laurel and Hardy,
you really got us into it this time
.
Have I committed, I sometimes wonder, to a battle that can’t be won? Is it even possible to gain an inch of ground? But then I feel my mother’s steely gaze in the rearview mirror. I think of the women who’ve caught my hand and searched my eyes as I walked by.
“Am I going to die?” so many of them ask.
Or “Does this mean my daughter will get it?”
“Is my disease contagious?” a woman in India recently asked me. Her face was ashen with fear. Crusted black tumors pushed through the skin beneath her bright magenta sari.
In those moments, I know that doubt is an unaffordable luxury. Defeat is unthinkable. Inaction is not even an option. I hear the echo of great words:
How long? Not long
.
When SGK board chair Alexine Clement Jackson and I discuss where
we’d like this organization to be in twenty-five years, Alexine states unequivocally: “Out of business. Because the cure for breast cancer has been found and it’s a chronic, treatable disease for all women, everywhere in the world.”
It’s a challenge. But in the words of JFK, “That challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”
On a wide world stage in a complicated environment, the well-being—in many cases the very survival—of 2.5 billion people is threatened by a horizontal system that needs to be vertical, a lack of access that needs to be an open door. There are places in the world that haven’t progressed much beyond that first rudimentary diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer recorded by the ancient Egyptians, places where women’s bodies are shrouded in shame and silence. Angels of mercy die as a matter of inconvenience, and their passing doesn’t even leave a hash mark on statistical analysis. At this writing, the UN’s Millennium Development Goals do not include the word
cancer
. And beyond all that is the bald reality that at the end of the day, I’m tired and I miss Suzy, my touchstone, my best friend. At the end of the day, a stinging sense of
not enough
always lingers.
In Shakespeare’s
Much Ado About Nothing
, a nobleman tells a returning soldier, “A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers.” He asks how many were lost in battle, and the war-weary soldier says, “None of name.”
My numbers can never be full because I wasn’t able to bring my sister home. But the mothers and sisters know that every one of the fallen had a name, and I’ve heard those names spoken as I marched beside the few who became the many. We see the long road ahead and feel the loving presence of those who fought the good fight. We remember their faces and carry their love with us into the future, not because of how they died but because of how they lived. In my heart, I speak to each of them the words I spoke at Suzy’s funeral:
Sister, I thanked God today for taking you into his peaceful eternity. I thanked Him for giving you to us, even if for too short a time. And I thanked Him for relieving you of your suffering and pain. But for all of
us who loved you so dearly, the pain will continue. Losing you is overwhelming. Many beautiful words vanish like snowflakes as they fall. But not your familiar beautiful words. The ones you wanted to say to us one more time:
Thank you
…
I forgive you
… and always,
I love you
. Those words will remain in our hearts forever. No accolades or rewards, Suzy, just us whom you loved so well in death as in life. Go with God, in peace, my dear sister, and know that with you goes a part of each of us.
Promise Me
I
knew President Obama wasn’t calling to offer me a job because there was no call before the call. Just a call from his office. “Ambassador Brinker, the president would like to offer you the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”
It had been twenty-nine years, almost to the day, since Suzy died. This was one of those moments when the enormity of everything that’s happened since then crystallized and overwhelmed me.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor in the United States, given for “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural, or other significant public or private endeavors.” I was stunned, indescribably honored, and humbly amazed when I learned what exceptional company I’d be keeping. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the Supreme Court. Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, the last living Indian Plains war chief. Geneticist Janet Davison Rowley and Dr. Pedro José Greer Jr. were being celebrated for their contributions to medicine, Stephen Hawking for science, Chita Rivera for dance, Sidney Poitier for film, and Billie Jean King for sports. Harvey Milk was being posthumously recognized for activism.
During the awards ceremony, President Obama said,
One of the last things Suzy Komen did before she died was to have her sister Nancy make her a promise. Nancy promised that she would prevent other families fighting breast cancer from suffering the way that her family had. What began as a shoebox with $200 and a list of friends has become a global Race for the Cure; a campaign that has eased the
pain and saved the lives of millions of people around the world. In the months after making that promise, Nancy lay awake at night wondering if one person can really make a difference. Nancy’s life is the answer.
Stepping behind me, he lowered the medal on its wide ribbon close to my heart and worked the clasp at the nape of my neck. I bit the inside of my cheek, trying hard to keep my face from crumpling, thinking what this moment would have meant to my father, to Norman, to Suzy—grateful at the same time that Mommy, Eric, Brenda, and Connolly, and so many other people I loved were there and that a banquet hall full of friends and colleagues waited for me at the Hay-Adams across the street from the White House.
Later, as I greeted people at the reception, the daughter of a friend said, “Love the necklace, Ambassador. Did you get it from someone special?”
“M
addie! Abbie!”
“Aunt Nan!”
Suzy’s granddaughters come running in ruffles and ribbons. Scott and his wife, Marnie, laugh at how adeptly the girls invest me with their grandmother’s gift for silliness. Sitting in pint-size chairs at the American Girl store in Manhattan, we get down to the serious business of our tea party.
“When your Grammy Suzy and I were little girls,” I tell them, “our daddy built us a playhouse in the backyard with a little table so we could have lunch with our dolls.”
“And important meetings?” says Maddie.
“Yes, very important meetings.”
Abbie declares her dolly administrative assistant. I excavate my spare BlackBerry from my big pink bag and place it between dolly’s stiff but capable hands. We eat cookies and giggle and tease. All too soon it’s time to leave. I pull the girls close so Eric can take our picture, and before I let them go, I kiss each of them on top of the head.
“Abbie, I’m counting on you to be a good girl.”
She nods gravely.
“Susan Madeline Komen?”
“Yes, Aunt Nan?” she answers with tea party decorum.
“Promise me you’ll always take care of your sister.”
“I promise,” says Maddie, and she dances away.
REAST
C
ANCER
T
IMELINE
1600 B.C.E.
Earliest mention of breast cancer in Egyptian surgical papyrus.
400 B.C.E.
Greek physicians observe crablike tentacled tumors in autopsy and coin the term
cancer
.
1700s
Trend toward surgical medicine popularizes mastectomy as most effective treatment for breast cancer.
1880s
Mastectomies are routinely performed without anesthesia or antiseptic until 1850s. Halsted innovates radical mastectomy technique in 1880s.
1890s
Marie Curie discovers radium in 1898, laying foundation for radiation treatment for cancer.
Early 1900s
Halsted radical and super-radical mastectomies push limits of survivable surgery.
1940s
American Cancer Society Research Program launched with $1 million raised by Mary Woodard Lasker.
Chemotherapy emerges with development of Cytoxin (cyclophosphamide) and Adriamycin (doxorubicin).
1958
5-fluorouracil synthesized.
1960s
The less invasive lumpectomy gains favor.
1970s
Dr. Brian McMahon analyzes epidemiological evidence linking breast cancer to lifetime exposure to reproductive hormones.
American Cancer Society promotes mammography as best tool for early breast cancer detection.
1974
First Lady Betty Ford speaks openly about her breast cancer diagnosis.
Studies by V. Craig Jordan, Ph.D., show tamoxifen prevents cancer in rats by binding to estrogen receptors.
1977
Susan Goodman Komen is diagnosed with breast cancer.
1978
U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves tamoxifen for treatment of estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer.
1980
American Cancer Society sets early detection guidelines for breast cancer.
Susan G. Komen dies of breast cancer at age thirty-six.
1982
Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation founded on July 22 in Dallas, Texas. SGK awards grants totaling $30,000 to M. D. Anderson in Houston and Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. Dr. Ronald Levy successfully treats lymphoma with monoclonal antibody therapy.
1983
First SGK Race for the Cure is held in Dallas, Texas, with 800 participants.
First SGK National Awards Luncheon in Dallas.
1984
Nancy G. Brinker diagnosed with breast cancer.
1985
Studies by Dr. Bernard Fisher demonstrate lumpectomy plus radiation survival rates are equivalent to mastectomy survival rates.
1986
First SGK Race for the Cure outside of Dallas takes place in Peoria, Illinois.
First National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) is held in October.
1989
SGK grantees Dr. Harold E. Varmus and Dr. J. Michael Bishop receive Nobel Prize for oncogene behavior discoveries, a breakthrough that provides foundation for many treatments to come.
Nancy G. Brinker is first breast cancer advocate named to the President’s Cancer Panel.
First SGK local chapter (later called “affiliates”) opens in San Francisco, California.
SGK National Toll-Free Breast Care Helpline established.
1990
SGK grantee Mary-Claire King, Ph.D., isolates gene mutation on chromosome 17, setting the stage for discovery of BRCA1 and BRCA2.
SGK affiliates award first community grants for education, screening, and treatment projects.
1991
For the first time, SGK reaches $1 million in research and project grants in a single year.
1992
SGK 10th Anniversary gala includes Vice President and Mrs. Dan Quayle; U.S. senator Connie Mack and his wife, Priscilla Mack, receive the Betty Ford Award.
SGK plays key role in passage of Mammography Quality Standards Act.
V. Craig Jordan, Ph.D., D.Sc., and Bernard Fisher, M.D., receive first Brinker International Awards for Breast Cancer Research.
1993
U.S. Olympic runner Francie Larrieu-Smith is National Honorary Chair of the SGK Race for the Cure series.
1994
Studies by Dr. Brian Henderson show that exercise reduces breast cancer risk in premenopausal women.
Research by David G. I. Kingston, Ph.D., leads to FDA approval of Taxol (paclitaxel).
1995
SGK Race for the Cure events in 57 U.S. cities; SGK local affiliates in 27 cities nationwide.
1996
Research by David G. I. Kingston, Ph.D., leads to FDA approval of Taxotere (docetaxel).
1997
SGK launches first website solely dedicated to breast health and breast cancer information.
Thomas Čech, Ph.D., and Robert Weinberg, Ph.D., each clone gene for telomerase.
Dr. Judah Folkman and Dr. Timothy Browder cure cancer in mice with angiostatin and endostatin.
1998
FDA approves monoclonal antibody Herceptin (trastuzumab) for breast cancer treatment.
SGK supports issue of U.S. Postal Service Breast Cancer Research stamp.
First SGK Race for the Cure outside of the United States in Costa Rica (SGK Race for the Cure series now the largest registered 5K in the world.)
1999
Studies by SGK grantee V. Craig Jordan, Ph.D., show that raloxifene reduces breast cancer risk by 76 percent in postmenopausal women.
SGK establishes the African American National Advisory Council (AANAC).
Interdisciplinary Breast Care Fellowship established at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Telomerase, an enzyme instrumental in a chromosome’s ability to divide and replicate, is discovered by SGK grantee Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D.
First international SGK affiliates are established in Germany and Greece.
2000
President Clinton signs executive order mandating Medicare coverage for clinical trials.
SGK provides $1.5 million in funding for a first-of-its-kind research study on the quality of cancer care in association with the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Harvard University, and the Rand Corporation.
