I will never forget the moment the doctor told me I had breast cancer. The words seemed impossible to absorb. I thought, “No, it can’t be me. I feel great. Heart disease runs in my family.” I wanted desperately to say, “You must be mistaken,” but deep down, I knew it wasn’t a mistake.

Having once worked at Johns Hopkins Hospital and served on several committees with the Administrative Director of the Breast Center, I reached out to her during one of the most frightening moments of my life. I will never forget her response: “Thank you for coming home and letting us take care of you.” In those words, I found comfort, reassurance, and the feeling that I would not have to face what came next alone.

The year I was diagnosed, I formed “Faith’s Fighters” to raise money for Susan G. Komen. Just months after completing treatment, I joined my first walk. I was there, but I didn’t feel like a survivor yet. Then I met women who had survived for 10, 12, 15, and 20 years. Their strength filled me with hope and showed me what was possible. I remember thinking, “I want to be like them for the women who come after me.”

Komen has been there for me, just as it has been there for so many other women and their families, offering emotional and financial support when it is needed most. That care—and the hope it brings—is possible only because of the extraordinary generosity of volunteers and donors who choose to stand beside us.