In May 1991, I sat in a law firm conference room in Washington, DC, listening to a pitch from a small group of women who had the idea to launch a political advocacy movement around breast cancer. One of those women was Dr. Susan Love. The person next to me nudged me with her elbow and whispered, “She is famous. She wrote this unbelievable book.”
The effort to defeat cancer is a visceral need for each of us, fueled by the memories of the myriad of special individuals we cared for who passed from this earth due to this terrible disease.
Mountain climber, mentor, swimmer and world-renowned scientist, Beverly Torok-Storb, PhD, a pioneering stem cell biologist who worked at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center for 45 years, died Friday, May 5, at her home in Seattle. She was 75.
It was around 2018, and the new patient volumes at Levine Cancer Institute had increased from about 6,000 new cases/year to just under 18,000.
Mark Haynes Smith died Nov. 3, 2022. He was my partner and husband for just shy of 39 years. He was only 63.
When you hear the words “world famous scientist,” “devoted parent and husband,” “enthusiastic mentor,” and “committed friend,” who comes to mind? I, like many others across the world, think of Dr. C. David Allis. David, a prolific scientist, with over 400 publications and more than 100,000 citations, made many discoveries that have shaped our understanding about how genes are regulated and made a full circle bench-to-bedside impact.
Dr. Jo Anne L. Earp, 79, professor emerita and past chair in the Department of Health Behavior at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, passed away in the early hours of Nov. 18 at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, NC.
Dr. Audrey E. Evans, emeritus professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania and the first chief of the Division of Oncology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, died peacefully at her home on Sept. 29, surrounded by loved ones. She was 97.
Nicholas Vogelzang, MD, 72, an internationally recognized oncologist who dedicated his professional life to researching and treating genitourinary cancers as well as mesothelioma, died on Sept. 20.
The breast cancer community has lost a friend, a partner, and a dedicated patient advocate.
