Susan Goodman Komen, an active civic leader from Peoria, Illinois, was born on October 31, 1943, and helped change how the world talks about and treats breast cancer. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1977, when little was known or understood about the disease and many people would not even say the words aloud, she endured nine operations, three courses of chemotherapy and radiation during a three-year struggle. Before her death on August 4, 1980, at age 36, she asked her sister to promise to do everything possible to end breast cancer so others would not suffer as she did. In 1982, her sister, Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker, fulfilled that promise by establishing the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, renamed Susan G. Komen for the Cure® in 2007. That promise between two sisters helped launch the global breast cancer movement, and the organization became the world's largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists and the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer.