In 1981, Nancy G. Brinker made a promise to her sister, who was dying of breast cancer. The public relations consultant vowed that she would work to spare other women from suffering in the same way. It was a dramatic gesture, and it led to a dramatic result: A year later, Nancy formed the Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, named after her sister. Having no fortune of her own, she needed a way to both raise money and draw attention to the course. The novel solution, which she arrived at while jogging, was to start a series of five kilometer charity runs named the Race for the Cure.

Such events are now ubiquitous, but the 1983 Race for the Cure was one of the first. And it has become one of the largest. Since its inception, the Komen Foundation has collected more than $630 million for breast cancer research and is considered a prime mover behind the progress in treatment.

At the time that Brinker founded the Komen Foundation, breast cancer was rarely discussed in public and was a low priority in oncology research, despite the fact that it strike ones in seven women. She initially approached charitable groups, but none was interested in breast cancer. So in 1982, Brinker gathered 20 women in her living room and asked for their help. “The oil business was booming in Taxas back then,” she says, and the group was able to raise $1 million in a year. But it was the Race for the Cure that made Komen a mega-foundation.

Most important, the foundation has doled out more than $180 million in research grants. “There is hardly an advance in the science of breast cancer over the past 20 years that hasn’t been touched by a Komen grant.” Scientists acknowledge that Brinker’s fundraising, and the attention the Komen foundation has drawn to the disease, have played a large part in improving the prognosis for patients. Breast cancer death rates have dropped 2.3％ a year over the past decade, a greater improvement than any other of the five leading cancer killers.

In honor of her work, and for setting a template for other advocacy efforts, Brinker was awarded the prestigious Lasker Award for Public Service. “Brinker”, said the Lasker Foundation, “dramatically increased public awareness about this devastating disease.” Still, Brinker says her promise to her sister is far from fulfilled “We remain focused on one thing—a world without breast cancer,” she says. “We will continue to address causation, as well as the disparities in treatment in medically underserved populations.” So Brinker continue to Race for the Cure.

All of the following are true of Komen Breast Cancer Foundation except that ________.