‘Where a person lives should not determine if they live.’ Susan G. Komen founder focuses on new cancer mission

Cindy Krischer Goodman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Updated ·8 min read

The woman who turned breast cancer awareness into a national “pink” phenomenon is applying the same feistiness she used to create the Susan G. Komen organization to a new movement in Florida.

Nancy G. Brinker, founder of the Susan G. Komen organization, says she chose October for breast cancer awareness more than 40 years ago because children were back in school and the holidays hadn’t kicked in yet. With the country awash in pink this month, Brinker, 76, has come far in her fight against the disease — but she is not finished.

The Susan G. Komen organization she founded has raised billions of dollars for breast cancer research and treatments, and its pink ribbons are worn proudly by millions of survivors. A fulltime resident of Palm Beach, her focus has shifted from research to prevention and South Florida is her target.

Brinker wants to create local women’s health care centers to offer free mammograms, ultrasounds and arrange breast cancer treatments for women without insurance. She has begun this mission in West Palm Beach and will expand into Broward County in mid-2024.

Brinker says data printed on a mailer launched this concept. She discovered Florida is 49 out of the 50 states when it comes to providing government funding for women’s health care, and about 80,000 women in the Palm Beach County are uninsured.

That didn’t sit well with Brinker.

She knew having no insurance meant these women likely were not getting mammograms. That’s particularly risky for black women who tend to get diagnosed when their cancer is late stage and aggressive, and for Hispanic women who tend to have breast cancer at early ages.

The new mission begins

A breast cancer survivor herself, Brinker began making the phone calls to potential donors in Palm Beach, the approach she perfected when she built the Susan G. Komen organization and its Race for the Cure. Thus, the Promise Fund of Florida was created in 2018, and Brinker focused her determination on getting uninsured women in the county access to breast screenings.

Many uninsured and underinsured residents go to federally qualified health centers for their primary care. So Brinker partnered with one in West Palm Beach called FoundCare, and made it the home of the first Promise Fund Women’s Center.

Over the last five years, Promise Fund has cut a deal with Uber to pick women up and take them to the center. It has secured the donation of a 3D mammography device from Hologic. It has worked out partnerships with hospitals and doctors to treat the women at no cost. And it has hired about two dozen patient navigators to help steer women through the entire screening and treatment process.

Most important, the West Palm Beach Promise Fund Women’s Center has become a model for how to get more uninsured or underinsured women screened and treated when breast cancer is detected.

That model is about to be replicated.

“My sister told me that ‘where a person lives should not determine if they live,’ and that’s been my mantra in the 40 years that I’ve been fighting for women in need of cancer care.”

— Nancy Brinker

This spring, the Promise Fund of Florida secured federal funding from three Broward and Palm Beach county elected officials — U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. The nearly $1 million from each will go to creating three new Promise Fund Women’s Health Centers at Federally Qualified Health Centers in each of the congresswomen’s districts, one in Boynton Beach, one in Riviera Beach and one in Hollywood.

“We are in a very aggressive, assertive place,” Brinker said. “We want to get this equipment installed. We want to get these centers built. We want to hire the navigators. This is going to continue to be a model for people all over the country because now we can talk about a real community-based effort.”

Before the Promise Fund’s arrival in West Palm Beach, only one out of five of FoundCare patients who were referred for mammograms went on to receive one. Now, with the mammogram machine onsite, almost 60% of the patients get screened, FoundCare’s CEO Christopher Irizarry said.

In total, more than 4,000 women have been screened at the Promise Fund clinic, and 17 cancer cases were identified. A breast ultrasound technician comes on Thursdays for additional screenings if something suspicious is detected.

Low-income women need free treatment

Karen Patti, chief operating officer of Promise Fund of Florida, said the treatment component has become as important as the free screenings because cancer care can be expensive.

“The Promise Fund has put together a network of cancer treatment providers to give pro bono or reduced-rate care to women who have cancer so they can stay local for their care,” she said.

The most important piece, Brinker says, has been two navigators at the FoundCare center and 17 navigators within clinics throughout Palm Beach County who coordinate women’s screenings and if needed, treatment.

“If you do have to face cancer, know that you now have a resource and people who can help you navigate the difficult journey,” Brinker said. “These women become friends with their navigators. They trust them and they know they are not going to get a bill. Then they go back to their community and bring other women in, and before you know it we’ve a primary care system for them.”

“It’s groundbreaking that we have been able to do this,” Irizarry said. “The Promise Fund is more more than a program. It’s a compassionate caring way to address a problem.”

Brinker doesn’t accept a “no”

Those who know Brinker say her determination, energy and focus on fighting breast cancer is relentless.

“She’s very convincing and persistent,” said David Brodsky, chairman of the board for the Promise Fund. Brodsky, whose wife and two daughters each had breast cancer twice, said the cause is important to him.

Brinker doesn’t mind being called pushy or asking for something that no one has asked for before, particularly when women’s health is at stake. “You have to always be in a hurry,” she said. “You have to be somebody who has to be pushing.”

When her sister, Suzy, died at 36 of breast cancer, Brinker promised her that she would do everything possible to end the shame, pain, fear and hopelessness caused by this disease. “My sister told me that ‘where a person lives should not determine if they live,’ and that’s been my mantra in the 40 years that I’ve been fighting for women in need of cancer care,” Brinker said.

Every request Brinker makes is couched in how it will help people, Izirray said. Most of the time, a donor or vendor or physician or hospital leader relents.

“Nancy is a person who walks the walk, so when she sets her mind to do something, she puts as much time and energy as it takes to make sure it happens,” Irizarry said. “If she gets out of bed with energy and determination to help others, people want to be a part of that.”

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Brinker says she sees progress. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1983 and underwent a double mastectomy followed by a stiff course of chemo. She says treatment has improved drastically since the 1980s.

“I think we are in a place where we can forestall the advancement of the disease. There are five or six or eight different strategies that have emerged out of all this research and they’re very useful, and they’re keeping some later-stage breast cancer patients alive,” she said.

With the drugs available today, Brinker thinks it’s possible her sister, who was stage 4 when diagnosed, could have had a completely different course of treatment.

“I think these designer drugs are going to make a big impact sooner or later. Already women with stage-four breast cancer are living longer,” Brinker said. “But let’s analyze that for a minute … it’s women who can afford care who are living longer.”

Rather than open Promise Fund women’s centers around the country, Brinker wants to entice communities to open their own centers using her model.

“Our five-year goal is to be well into having helped many communities across the country replicate in one way or another what we’re doing,” she said. “Community leaders need to get right up to their elbows, roll up their sleeves and get the thing built in whatever way they can. A lot of lives will be saved, because the great amount of cancer deaths going forward are going to be with the poor.”

Brodsky said anyone who knows Brinker believes she will accomplish her goal.

“She’s spent her entire adult life in pursuit of better healthcare for women. All of us who are involved through the Promise Fund are dedicated to saving lives and bringing people into the health care system so that they can better take care of themselves and their families,” he said.

In the next five years, he said, “I would like to see that the world doesn’t need us anymore … that the education and health care system takes care of those who are underinsured or uninsured. That is what Nancy and all of us at The Promise Fund are striving for.”

Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.

ABOUT THE MISSION

Promise Fund of Florida’s reach, through its center at FoundCare and its navigators at clinics around Palm Beach County

  • 22,000 women helped through navigating, educating, screening or treatment

  • 95 breast or cervical cancers treated

  • 7,000 women connected to a primary care physician

  • 19,000 women who received education and outreach on breast cancer symptoms and screening guidelines

  • 4,000+ mammograms at the inaugural Promise Fund Women’s Health Center at FoundCare

  • 2,500 pap tests

  • 1,900 women referred for additional screenings after abnormal test results