LINDSAY’S STORY

Bright Pink Founder, Lindsay Avner

Lindsay Avner has been a well-known national advocate in involving young people in the fight against breast cancer for the past decade. Her mother is a breast and ovarian cancer survivor and Lindsay lost her grandmother and great-grandmother, both to breast cancer before she was born. Neither one knew how sick the other one was.When Lindsay was 12 years old, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. At such a young age, the experience had a tremendous impact on her life. Out of gratitude for her mother’s survival Lindsay contacted the Komen Affiliate in Columbus, Ohio to get involved and founded the first ever Race for the Cure® High School Team Challenge in 2000 to raise awareness of the disease and recruit young men and women to participate in the race and cause. The challenge eventually spread to over 35 schools in Columbus, then to more than 60 other affiliates, including Greece, Italy and Germany. Today, the High School Team Challenge is one of only a few Model Programs at the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Lindsay, 24, with her mother, Wendy, a breast and ovarian cancer survivor

In June of 2005, right after graduating from the University of Michigan, Lindsay tested positive for a mutation on the BRCA1 gene, an inhereted alteration in the gene that can carry with it an up to 85% increased risk of breast cancer. Vowing to not let the disease strike her, as it had three generations of women before her, she opted to have a bilateral prophylactic mastectomy at Sloan Kettering, one of the youngest patients to opt for the procedure. Today, Lindsay, 24, lives in Chicago, IL and remains a committed activist and role model to other high risk young women. She is a member of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Young Women's National Advisory Council and her contagious enthusiasm and passion to educate others continues to inspire thousands other women to be proactive with their health. Lindsay’s story has been profiled in the Chicago Tribune, NY Post, Today Show, Inside Edition, and CNN.

Lindsay’s Great Grandmother, Lillian (left) and Grandmother, Sandra died of breast cancer a week apart in 1971