HCC, mayor honor health hero for
cancer fight
Zora
Brown’s fight to save herself and others from cancer’s impending doom
has earned her national praise and honors from the Hollings Cancer
Center (HCC) and the mayor of Charleston.Charleston Mayor Joe Riley named March 21 “Zora Brown Day,” and joined in a chorus of dignitaries and survivors who acknowledged Brown’s contributions to the community, especially the African-American community, in highlighting the risks of cancer and ways to avoid them.
Zora Brown“Zora Brown has, through consistent and outstanding efforts, created amazing community institutions that benefit many who are in need. She has given her time to make the lives of cancer survivors better. She has created answers to breast cancer questions that not only touch the African-American community but to reach out to everyone who is touched by this disease,” said Andrew C. Kraft, M.D., HCC director.
For Brown, cancer began as a personal enemy. She always knew the odds of getting breast cancer were stacked against her. Based on her family history, she was at high risk of getting breast cancer, like her great-grandmother, her grandmother and her mother did before her. One of her three sisters and a niece died from the disease. So, when Brown was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1981, it came as no surprise to her. But what Brown did next might surprise others.
She didn’t just fight for her life, she fought to save the lives of others—especially African-American women who are twice as likely as Caucasian women to die from breast cancer. After Brown’s sister Belva’s third breast cancer diagnosis, they jointly founded the Breast Cancer Resource Committee (BCRC), a nonprofit group with a mission to educate and support African-American women in their battle with the disease. An outgrowth of the BCRC is “Rise Sister Rise,” a support group for black women.
Still, she continues to fight. Brown, who had two battles with breast cancer, was diagnosed in 2005 with ovarian cancer. Again she turned to one of her sisters for inspiration—that sister is a 20-year ovarian cancer survivor.
Brown also is founder and chairperson of Cancer Awareness Program Services (CAPS). CAPS was organized on Jan. 1, 1992 as a way to institute a comprehensive cancer prevention program focusing on awareness and education targeting women, particularly women of color. Brown subsequently organized Men in Action Against Breast Cancer and, along with her nieces, established SASSI (Sisters Accessing Skills for Survival and Intervention).
In 1991, Brown was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to the National Cancer Advisory Board of the National Cancer Institute on which she served until March 1998.
She is a past member of the HCC Advisory Board, having been appointed by former U.S. Sen. Ernest Hollings. On Nov. 1, 1995 she received a special citation in the “Congressional Record” by Hollings. Brown, along with Oprah Winfrey, was named one of the 1997 10 Women’s Health Heroes, American Health for Women (a Reader’s Digest publication).
Currently Brown is special assistant to the CEO and Director of Health and Cultural Affairs at Integris Health, Oklahoma City, Okla. She is responsible for coordinating the Business Health Leadership Institute and the Oklahoma Chronic Disease Initiative; developing an agenda for the CEO to deal with diversity in the workplace; and expanding relationships with relevant community groups, among other issues.
With LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., M.D., she recently co-authored a book, “100 Questions and Answers About Breast Cancer.” She currently is working on a book with Harold Freeman, M.D. She also co-produced a CD-ROM utilizing the breast cancer risk assessment tool set to original jazz music.
Friday, March 23, 2007
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