Komen Central Valley Names 2009 Honorary Team New Balance Survivor

Yearly, the Komen Central Valley Race Committee nominates a breast cancer survivor who has made an exemplary contribution in the fight against breast cancer to serve as Honorary Team New Balance Survivor. She will be honored at the 11th Annual Komen Central Valley Race for the Cure. You are about to read the bio of this year's nominee, Jamie Ledezma. She is an extraordinary young woman who has touched the hearts of many at the local and national level. Her story has been featured at Komen Advocacy Alliance, local TV and CNN.com.

On Valentine’s Day 2007, twenty-seven year old Jamie Ledezma was diagnosed with breast cancer. Together, she and her husband Rigo embarked on her breast cancer journey. Not only did she face battling breast cancer as a young woman and wife, she courageously underwent chemotherapy while 15 weeks pregnant. After six months of chemotherapy, Jamie delivered a healthy baby boy. She then underwent 4 additional rounds of chemo. Jamie had a significant family history of breast cancer and tested positive for BRCA-1. A month and a half after her baby was born, Jamie underwent a bilateral mastectomy. In order to share her journey with family and friends, Jamie authored the blog, Pregnant With Cancer Unbeknownst to her, her blog would touch the lives of women throughout the United States.
Jamie traveled with son Blake to Sacramento, California to deliver her testimony of breast cancer survival to California legislators. A very busy wife, mother, attorney and political science instructor, Jamie also serves as the Public Policy Chair on the Komen Central Valley Board of Directors. She seizes every opportunity to educate by sharing her experience and perspective on life as a young breast cancer survivor.
Jamie’s dedication and commitment to the cause serves as an inspiration to all.

Komen's Founder Nancy Brinker Named Recipient of Presidential Freedom Award

Release from Komen HQ

WASHINGTON, DC – July 30, 2009 – Ambassador Nancy Goodman Brinker, whose promise to her dying sister launched Susan G. Komen for the Cure® and the worldwide breast cancer movement, was nominated for the highest civilian honor in the United States – the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House announced today.

Brinker, founder of the world’s leading breast cancer organization and a Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control of the World Health Organization, will receive the Medal from President Barack Obama at a White House ceremony Aug. 12.

She is being honored for her leadership in building Susan G. Komen for the Cure into a global force for change for people with breast cancer, leading the way in breast cancer research, advocacy, education and outreach. With her vision, Dallas-based Komen for the Cure has grown from a group of friends in a living room to an organization with more than 120 domestic and global Affiliates, more than 1.5 million advocates and a presence in more than 50 countries.

“To say that I am honored, humbled and exhilarated is a vast understatement,” Brinker said. “I will be pleased to accept this honor in my sister’s memory, and on behalf of the millions of women and men who have walked side-by-side with us over many years to end the suffering and misery from this disease.”

Alexine Clement Jackson, chair of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure board of directors, said, “Nancy Brinker embodies an American story – a story of the tremendous good that can be achieved when people put their minds to it. Today, millions of women and men owe their recoveries, their treatments, their positive prognosis, their social and psychological support to the work that Nancy has achieved in her sister’s memory. We are very proud of her – this is well-deserved.”

Nancy Brinker’s story began in Peoria , Ill. , with a promise to her sister, Susan G. Komen, that she would do everything she could to end breast cancer forever. Susan Komen died of breast cancer in 1980, at the age of 36, after a three-year battle with the disease. Brinker was diagnosed with breast cancer just two years later.

“At that time, there was a stigma and shame around breast cancer. You didn’t talk about it. There were no 800-numbers, no Internet. Our government didn’t spend much on breast cancer research. There were few major cancer centers with expertise about breast cancer. That’s the world we faced when Suzy was diagnosed. It’s a world I watched her suffer in, and it’s a world she wanted us to change,” Brinker said. Determined to keep her promise, Brinker launched what was then called the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in 1982 from her living room in Dallas . The name was changed to Susan G. Komen for the Cure in 2007.At first, Brinker encountered embarrassed resistance to her plans to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research and education. “We found that potential sponsors didn’t want to be associated with cancer, especially a cancer of the breast. Papers didn’t want to print the words ‘breast cancer.’ It was very much an uphill battle,” Brinker said. Nevertheless, she persevered, and in 1983 the first Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure® was run around a Dallas shopping mall with about 800 people. Today, more than 1.5 million people run annually in Komen Race for the Cure events in more than 120 U.S. and 14 international cities. This October, Komen will hold its first Race for the Cure around the Giza Pyramids in Cairo .

Along the way, Brinker pioneered the concept of “cause-related marketing” and established the color pink as the iconic representation for breast cancer. Today, almost 300 global and national companies are Komen sponsors, providing funding to help fulfill the organization’s promise to save lives and end breast cancer forever. All told, Komen has raised and invested more than $1.3 billion into cutting-edge research and community outreach, education and support programs.

KSEE24 TV Features Komen Grantee; Deaf and Hard of Hearing Service Center

Stefani Booroojian, KSEE 24 news anchor pioneered the Buddy Check program bringing breast cancer awareness to California's Central Valley. On the 24th. of each month, Stefani reminds women to perform their monthly Breast Self-Exam while encouraging them to remind a buddy to do the same.

Accompanying this Buddy Check tonight, Stefani featured the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Service Center, 2009/2010 Komen Central Valley grantee.

taken from KSEE 24:
Breast Cancer Awareness for Fresno's Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community
"Breast cancer does not discriminate, and all women are at risk. Fresno's Deal and Hard of Hearing Service Center is spreading breast cancer awareness among its clients. A number of events are planned to share the visual message that every woman counts."


See KSEE 24 feature

Read about KSEE 24's Buddy Check

Visit Komen Central Valley's Grantees

Komen for the Cure Names College Scholarship Recipients

DALLAS – July 21, 2009 – After losing their mothers to breast cancer, Lin Ling, Samantha Muilenburg, Asimina Trigonis and Heather Zurek have been selected to receive college scholarships geared to the children of people who have died of breast cancer, from Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, the world’s largest and most progressive grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists.

The Susan G. Komen College Scholarship Award Program was established to help students who would otherwise find attending college to be a significant financial burden, due to the loss of a parent to breast cancer. It offers undergraduate college scholarships of $10,000 a year for up to four years. Recipients of the Komen College Scholarship Award are selected based on scholastic achievement, community service and participation, financial need and demonstrated leadership potential. Recipients are expected to be ambassadors for Komen for the Cure and the breast cancer movement within their social networks and on their collegiate campus.

View Komen Scholarship Recipients

On a personal note, it was an extreme honor to have served on the Komen Scholarship Selection Committee. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, I was a single mom. My son was a high school senior preparing his own applications for college scholarships. It was my son who stopped his search in order to find information to educate both of us about breast cancer. He found the Komen National website. It was there I learned the ABCs of breast cancer. The result; I was very well prepared to ask the right questions of my breast surgeon, oncologist and radiation oncologist. When reading the applications of these scholars, I was reminded how breast cancer is not just an individual disease, it is a disease that affects the entire family. Early detection of my breast cancer saved my life, but these scholars lost their mothers. Each possessed the academic qualifications, but also shared their personal experience of their mother's battle with breast cancer. They described how they were positively influenced by the courage and strength of their mother's illness. They are incredible Ambassadors and Komen partners in the promise to end breast cancer forever.

Forbes says: Fresno 2nd worst city to recover from recession

Second worst city, 15.5% unemployment

Why is this Race so important? In the State where we can't agree on a budget, all business is affected. Women 40 and over who have lost their jobs, also eventually lose their insurance benefits. Those insurance benefits once provided means to obtaining life-saving breast cancer screening. Women 39 and under who have a high risk for developing breast cancer are not able to resume baseline mammography, or if they find a lump, cannot pay for their own mammograms. Jane Doe asks herself, "Shall I schedule my mammogram, or buy my family groceries?"

WE say, "Why should any woman have to choose?"

Make an impact on the life of your wife, mom, aunt, cousin, sister or girlfriend. Participate in Komen Central Valley Race for the Cure. There's many ways to assist these women; take the 125 challenge and pay for life-saving mammograms OR when registering for Race, ask friends, family or co-workers to make a donation.

For complete details, visit Komen Central Valley's Race page

Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Breast Self Awareness Guidelines

Know your risk
Talk to your family about your family health history
Talk to your doctor about your personal risk of breast cancer

Get screened
Ask your doctor which screening tests are right for you if you are at higher risk
Have a mammogram every year starting at age 40 if you are at average risk
Have a clinical breast exam at least every 3 years starting at 20, and every year starting at 40

Know what is normal for you
Know how your breasts look and feel and report changes to your health care provider right away

Make healthy lifestyle choices that may reduce your risk of breast cancer, such as
Maintain a healthy weight
Add exercise into your routine
Limit alcohol intake

Updating this blog & the wonders of social networking

No excuses-this blog has not been updated for nearly a year as we limited social networking to Myspace, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. I held out on opening a Twitter account as I wasn't convinced that "tweeting" could be of benefit, but I soon discovered its advantages. The delivery of a simple one-liner with a link (even utilizing tinyurl.com) lends quite a bang for the buck. I would love to know who comes up with names like "twitter" and "tweet" as I really can't remember either of these words frequently gracing my vocabulary in the past. I can guarantee that "tweet" never described any action of mine. Spammers still abound on Twitter as you notice a new "follower" appeals to those "come take a look at my naughty pictures". No problem, as blocking is an easy feature.
So why update this blog? To include this link in tweets of course.