CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) – October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and one Chicago based organization is celebrating nearly 40 years of raising money and awareness.
Lynn Sage was only 39-years-old when she died of breast cancer in 1985. Ever since, her friends and family have worked tirelessly to raise money and awareness in her name in hopes that someday, doctors will find a cure.
“We were trying to eradicate breast cancer, and we think that the best way to do that is to fund experienced researchers,” says Laura Sage, Lynn’s daughter and executive director of the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Laura was only a teenager when her mother died. She says, if Lynn was diagnosed today, she would’ve likely lived longer because of research and early detection…
“I’ve Google searched a zillion times what were the survival statistics back in the early 80s when my mom was diagnosed, and I get varying numbers, but they’re in the 70 percent in the optimistic side, so being able to fund research actually makes a difference in terms of someone’s prognosis for survival,” Sage says.
The foundation helped to open the Lynn Sage Breast Screening Center in 1997 and recently announced the first of its kind Chicago Breast Cancer Research Consortium.
Over the decades, the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Research Foundation has raised $45 million for the cause. Its fall gala will be next Thursday, Oct. 24 at The Theater on the Lake.
Last year’s event drew approximately 800 supporters and raised more than $1.2 million.
“I used to say our mission is to eradicate breast cancer, and I would be fairly pessimistic that that might happen in my lifetime. I have a lot more hope now than I used to,” Sage says.