Historic Breast Cancer Global Summit Opens in Budapest

Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world's largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists, today opened its historic Global Advocate Summit uniting more than 50 advocates from five continents with the announcement of its expansion into 10 countries. Mrs. Laura Bush and Dr. Klara Dobrev, wife of the Hungarian Prime Minister, are serving as Honorary Co-Chairs of the event.

Komen for the Cure Founder Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker opened the Summit with a sobering statistic: "With more than one million women and men being diagnosed with breast cancer every year and more than 400,000 people dying from it, we face a global breast cancer crisis."

For this reason, Komen is launching an unprecedented global expansion to create sustainable breast cancer outreach and education programs around the globe in Brazil, Costa Rica, Ghana, India, Jordan, Mexico, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and United Arab Emirates. The countries with the greatest needs and highest potential for change were selected based on data from the World Health Organization and information from Komen's grants in more than 50 countries. Komen has developed five in-depth training modules to be rolled out in each country, which capture the organization's methodology and best practices: community assessment, volunteer and organization development, awareness & education, fundraising and advocacy.

"The need to provide women-regardless of race, nationality or socioeconomic status-an equal opportunity to beat a breast cancer diagnosis has never been greater," added Ambassador Brinker. "To ensure the programs are culturally sensitive and sustainable, we are hiring in-country teams and partnering with various NGOs, governments and healthcare centers in each country to educate women and girls at the grassroots level, train health workers and address policy issues."

About the Summit:

Twenty-five U.S. delegates representing 21 states joined delegates from more than 30 countries at the first-ever Global Advocate Summit. Summit delegates were selected by Komen for their records of activism and success in the fight against breast cancer. Collectively, these women and men have contributed to breast cancer detection and treatment advances through community outreach, shaping public policy, offering health education, providing survivor support and fundraising.

Komen Global Summit Honorary Co-Chair Mrs. Laura Bush, a longtime Komen volunteer and breast cancer advocate, welcomed the delegates via a recorded video message. "Komen has lifted taboos, and increased breast -- cancer awareness ... because of these efforts, millions of women now enjoy longer and healthier lives," said Mrs. Bush. "One day, your work will lead to a cure -- and this historic gathering is an important step."

The wife of the Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsanys, Dr. Klara Dobrev, who serves as the Honorary Co-Chair addressed the crowd speaking passionately about the breast cancer movement and the changes that have occurred in Hungary since the Komen founder served as Ambassador there. "Thank you to Susan G. Komen for helping me as a mother to show my children that there are people who can make a difference -- to educate my country and the world," said Dr. Dobrev.

The opening day of the Summit closed with a presentation on the global impact of breast cancer and the current work being done by the Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI) of which Komen is a founding member. The BHGI annual meeting immediately follows the Komen summit.

"Breast cancer is a problem of global proportion and the magnitude of this problem cannot be overestimated," said Dr. Ben Anderson, chairman and director of the Breast Health Global Initiative at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. "In the United States, one in five women diagnosed with breast cancer will die from the disease and the mortality rate is more dire in developing countries."

For more information on Susan G. Komen for the Cure's Global Advocate Summit and its outcomes, as well as to see photographs from the event, go to http://www.komen.org. And, to get an insider's perspective of the Summit in real time, Komen has launched a blog at http://globaladvocatesummit.blogspot.com.