In Tribute
Marlene McCarthy
I’m Marlene McCarthy.
I’m co-founder and volunteer chair for the
Rhode Island Breast Cancer Coalition and
I serve on the Board of Directors and the Executive
Committee of the National Breast Cancer Coalition.
I was first diagnosed with invasive breast
cancer at the age of 44 with doctors saying,
“Oh, you’re too young; it couldn’t possibly
be breast cancer.”
And of course it was.
So I went through necessary treatment and
surprise, surprise, 21 years later, at the
age of 65, I was re-diagnosed.
What’s frustrating about it is not the diagnosis,
not the treatment, just the thought that I’ve
been doing this consumer advocacy 
for so many years.
And yes, there are gains in science, but women
are still being diagnosed.
Women and men, and still dying from the disease.
We may very well be coming up with the golden
answer through the Department of Defense
Breast Cancer Research Program.
I thoroughly enjoyed being a peer reviewer
for 3 years.
And I served as an ad hoc committee member
for programmatic review for 6 years.
What do consumers bring to the BCRP?
We bring passion.
Some have said, well, consumers bring a face
to the science that we do.
I think we bring much more than that.
We bring an urgency; we bring a vision for
a high-risk, high-gain science that will in
fact give us the answers to the cure and,
hopefully, prevention of breast cancer.
When consumers sit with scientists at the
table, it’s not about that consumer’s
breast cancer, it’s about the breast cancer
to be diagnosed in generations yet to come.
I’m feeling the sense of urgency inside
of myself.
I do not want my granddaughters to be diagnosed
with breast cancer.
I want them to have a screening tool that
is so much better than a mammogram, and I
want the potential outcomes to be so much
better in their life for them then they are
for us today.
It’s not about me.
My life is what it is.
It’s about theirs.
So my sense of urgency feeds into my commitment
to the Department of Defense
Breast Cancer  Research Program.
At least with this program, 
I believe we will get the answers.
Marlene McCarthy
1943 – 2018
