Celebrating 15 Year of Inspiring Hope

By Pam Blondin
Excutive Director, Komen NC Triangle

Sometimes it’s hard to believe what can happen in 15 years. It seems like only yesterday when, with vision and determination to find a cure for breast cancer, Jeanne Peck brought the Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Race Series to Raleigh on June 7, 1997. With the help of a handful of good friends and volunteers, the first Komen NC Triangle Race for the Cure, attracted more than 2,500 people and helped fund $80,050 in community health grants.

Jeanne said, “Be bold, be beautiful, be compassionate. Focus on the mission and always move forward because there is much work to be done.” I think that summed up not just her own unique sense of optimism, but the spirit of cancer survivors everywhere. Her death from lymphoma in 2009 was a great loss not just in Raleigh, but across our larger community that stands united in this effort to find a cure.

Fifteen years later we proudly continue Jeanne’s legacy. Those 2,500 participants now number 25,000, and the $80,050 invested in our mission has become more than $2 million. Now recognized as the largest 5K in the Carolinas, the NC Triangle Race for the Cure raises funds that have a direct impact on our ability to serve more uninsured and underinsured women right here in North Carolina, as well as fund national life-saving research to find a cure.

But without your help and that of thousands of friends and neighbors, what we do would not be possible. Thank you.

Three-quarters of the funds raised through community fundraising events like the Race for the Cure, individual donations, and corporate philanthropy are invested locally to meet the challenges faced by women in our 20 county service area. Women in North Carolina have a higher-than-average incidence of breast cancer, and there are significant health disparities among different counties and communities in our state. Last year about 5,400 new cases of invasive breast cancer were diagnosed in North Carolina, and more than 1,300 women in the state died of the disease.

In 2010, we funded 22 programs to meet the needs of women in our state – programs like:

Caring Community Foundation-Pay It Forward, which helps breast cancer patients pay their rent and utilities while they’re going through treatment.

Rex Healthcare Foundation Mammography Program, which provides breast cancer screening and follow-up to underserved women using their mobile mammography unit.

Local health departments, which provide outreach, screening and treatment for uninsured and undersinsured women.

At the same time, a quarter out of every dollar raised supports essential scientific research, advocacy, and global educational programs that move us closer to our goal: a world without breast cancer.

I hope that 15 years from now, we’ll be celebrating a world without breast cancer. But until that day there is still much work to be done. With your help we will continue to offer our community access vital education, screening, treatment, and financial services they need.

I hope you will continue this journey with me and take pride in all we have accomplished together. Register for the 2011 Race for the Cure today!