Tell us about your nominee. Why should he or she be recognized as a Jewish Community Hero?
Sue Friedman founded FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered on New Year's Day, 1999 following a diagnosis of breast cancer at age 33 and the discovery that she had inherited a BRCA2 genetic mutation. The lack of support and information specific to hereditary cancer and genetics motivated her to found FORCE.
Sue was to learn that families with hereditary predisposition to cancer face a lifetime risk as high as 90%. Women who are high-risk are often diagnosed at a younger age, are at an increased risk for a second or third cancer diagnosis, and can pass that hereditary risk on to their children. Being of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, she also learned that the general population had a 1 in 500 chance of having this predisposition whereas Ashkenazi Jewish women have a 1 in 40 chance. Sue realized that lives could be saved and created the FORCE website which now receives over 70,000 visits (equaling 2 million hits) per month. FORCE now publishes six brochures, including "What Every Jewish Woman Should Know About Breast and Ovarian Cancer."
This year FORCE will hold it's 5th annual conference, which provides the latest information to individuals and families affected by hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. Two years ago, FORCE provided a scholarship to an Israeli woman to attend the annual conference. She then returned to Israel and created an organization for women at risk. In Israel, 1 in 40 women are at risk and up until that point, did not have this life saving information and support. Sue Friedman is a Jewish Community Hero, providing information to save Jewish lives - it saved mine!
