Hearing this life-changing story and the battle fought by such a brave women has shown me that if life doesn’t go the way you like, make a change.  The Komen sisters have set an example which all should strive to achieve and maintain in everyday life.

The story of Susan G. Komen tears at the heart strings of all who take to time to read it.  Giving all women the hope and will to survive through a life-threatening disease like cancer was the initial goal when the foundation started in 1982; this continues to be the driving force and motivation for the volunteers and workers that help the organization.  

Her whole life ahead of her, Susan G. Komen was only 33 years old when she found out she had breast cancer.  In the beginning, she felt that going to the family practitioner in her home town of Peoria would be enough to fight off the disease and to keep it from spreading to other areas in her body; this was her first mistake.

Suggesting she have a subcutaneous mastectomy done, her surgeon realized how adamantly Susan objected receiving a full mastectomy.  A subcutaneous mastectomy takes the breast tissue but keeps the skin in tact, leaving the patient with a minor scar that will eventually fade.  

This decision proved to be the most lethal decision of her life.  Leaving the skin of her breast in tact, the cancer was able to stay alive and metastasize into many other places in her body, including her arm and lungs.

The news of the cancer spreading devastated her family, and forced her to seek out help from the Mayo Clinic.  While receiving treatment, the doctors discovered a tumor the size of a quarter in the upper part of her right lung and suspicious shadows around other areas in her body. The doctors suggested 30 days of radiation and then they would watch the tumors to see if they responded.  

After the radiation treatment proved to be a failure, Susan redirected her efforts to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.  Once there, rigorous chemo-therapy treatments began to shock her body in the hopes of slowing, maybe even stopping, and certainly preventing the cancer from spreading.  Although the treatment helped for some time, her body began to immunize itself from the drugs; the tumors stopped responding to treatments.  

Battling three years with breast cancer, Susan G. Komen was finally done fighting, and after giving her sister one last hug, succumbed to the awful disease known as breast cancer.

On that fateful day in 1980, Susan’s sister, Nancy Goodman-Brinker, decided to never let the memory of her sister fade from her memory.  Nancy Goodman-Brinker, the founder of the Susan G. Komen For the Cure Foundation, built the foundation to become one of the world’s largest breast cancer-fighting and survivor-supporting organization since it’s start in 1982.  Susan G. Komen For the Cure has invested $1.9 billion dollars into finding the cure for breast cancer and continues to fight the battle of so many.  The foundation has raised money in many ways: the well-known ‘Komen Race for the Cure’, donations from various sources, bowling tournaments, and golfing tournaments.