Honoree

Of the 16 recipients honored this year, Nancy Brinker was the first called to accept the "Presidential Medal of Freedom."

She's not as well known as her late sister: Susan G. Komen, in whose name people "race for the cure" and have raised over a billion dollars donated to breast cancer research. Yet despite such efforts, I've seen the fraction change with the denominator getting smaller... Meaning more women are catching it. But there are also more surviving as treatment improves, like my classmate Ellen, now in her 9th year.

Worldwide, breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer after lung cancer and the fifth most common cause of cancer death. In 2004, breast cancer caused 519,000 deaths worldwide (7% of cancer deaths; almost 1% of all deaths)... My sister, Jean, was one of them that year.

So while we cherish those we know who've been touched by fate's cruel hand, let us work toward a time we'll need some as yet unwritten reference to remember Nancy Brinker, and why she matters to our daughters yet unborn.

See also: Grace For The Cure, from May 3.