Susan G. Komen

Susan G. Komen was born in Peoria in 1943. Susan had a sister to whom she was very, very close to, even through her childhood and all throughout her adulthood. Susan successfully went to college and she eventually married her college sweetheart Stan Komen. Before being diagnosed with cancer she was a great model in her hometown of Peoria. She is the type of person who always had great hair and make-up and she would be a person who you would want to hang around.

At the age of 33 she got the call nobody wants to get. That phone call let her know she was diagnosed with breast cancer. For a while she thought her troubles were over but after 6 months of being cancer free the cancer came back. The cancer had begun to spread throughout her body. It had spread to her armpits and to her lungs. She then became an IV patient (the worst type of patient) at the Mayo Clinic. Since the cancer kept spreading she was moved to the Anderson Cancer Clinic. At the Anderson Cancer Center she received chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is what makes your hair fall out (it is not the actual cancer.) Susan had nine operations and three courses of chemotherapy and radiations but after three years with all of that she could not fight the cancer any longer. Susan then died in the year of 1980.

Susan wanted to build a foundation to help find a cure for others with breast cancer. Nancy wanted to help Susan out and make her wish come true so today we have the Susan G. Komen for the cure. I personally have supported this foundation. My grandma is a survivor of breast cancer so every year we do the race for the cure which is a walk to help raise money for breast cancer. Today, the foundation has raised over 2 billion dollars, have partnerships in over 50 countries, and has more than 100,000 volunteers. I think Susan would be pretty happy with the success of the foundation.