Breast cancer research nears $1B spent

[flamingyouth]

DALLAS - As breast cancer ravaged her body, Susan G. Komen asked her younger sister for a promise. Komen wanted help to "cure this disease." After a three-year struggle, the vivacious young mother with the bright smile died in 1980 at age 36.

And her sister, Nancy Brinker, kept her promise to do something, founding the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation two years later.

"I knew it had to be big. We had to change a culture," Brinker said.

Indeed, the culture and much more have changed.

In the 25 years since, the foundation has grown from a small gathering of women in Brinker's living room to a world-renowned operation that will have invested roughly $1 billion in community outreach and research by year's end.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070121/ap_on_he_me/komen_anniversary

[OzarkDem]

1. Komen is a conservative (GOP) organization

The founder, Nancy Brinker, is a Bush Pioneer. Her ex-husband is head of the restaurant chain that owns Chilis, Macaroni Grill, etc.

http://www.brinker.com/

While her commitment to breast cancer may be real, she uses the disease to help corporations sell products, with little of the money actually going to the cause and to help GoP politicians look like they're doing something about breast cancer.

Komen also lobbies against federal funding for programs like the Breast & Cervical Cancer Treatment Program, which provides temporary Medicaid coverage to uninsured women; the Patient's Bill of Rights and funding for research into environmental factors that cause breast cancer.

Here's an article, a little old but still accurate.

http://www.alternet.org/story/14014/

Other breast cancer groups like the National Breast Cancer Coalition (home of the Virginia Clinton Kelly Fund established by President Clinton) advocate for increased federal funding of breast cancer research as well as access to health care for all.

Thanks to their efforts, the federal government now spends nearly $1 billion for breast cancer research EVERY YEAR. Federal government is the biggest funder of cancer research, as it should be. Far better to have research guided and funded by government than by corporations.

Link to NBCC

http://www.natlbcc.org/

Link to Virginia Clinton Kelley Fund

http://www.natlbcc.org/bin/index.asp?strid=781&depid=16

[flamingyouth]

2. I didn't know that about the Komen foundation

But I admit I'm not surprised.

I find all of the mass marketing of breast cancer merchandise somewhat disturbing, to be honest. I about lost it when I saw a freaking VACUUM with a pink ribbon on it!! I've lost relatives and dear friends to breast cancer and I have friends who are fighting it.

Thanks for the links. Glad to see you back posting here. :hi:

[Imalittleteapot]

5. Thanks so much for link to NBCC.

I learned more from my short visit there than from Komen.

[LiberalinNC]

3. I'm not a big supporter of the Komen group, especially the local

group here in NC. They were not very supportive to a friend of mine who was trying to create a breast cancer license plate...they took the idea and ran with it; btw none of the extra money spent on the plate here in NC goes go to Breast Cancer research, which my friend wanted to have set up.

I stopped running the race for the cure years ago.

[flamingyouth]

4. That's unfortunate, to put it mildly

They're my sorority's charity and I wasn't terribly impressed by them myself, but I haven't had a whole lot of dealings with them - not as much as you have. But the info in this thread is enlightening, to put it mildly.

I stopped running the race for the cure a few years ago too, incidentally.