Her Race for the Cure

By Craig J. Heimbuch

Amy Isenogle keeps a picture on her desk at work. It’s a high school friend, someone she knew from her teenage years at Lakota, someone she had lost track of in the thrum and push of adulthood that brings changing friendships, missed opportunities and a reshuffling of priorities. She counted herself among the lucky few when they met again by chance in 2006, 13 years after graduation; lucky and unlucky at the same time.

“Jenn was a survivor, she was in remission,” Amy says. “She has since passed away. We hear that kind of story all the time, but we wish we never had to hear stories like that again.”

So the picture of her high school friend, a survivor and a casualty, sits on the remaindered desk in Amy’s office, stoking her passion for the work she does as Co-Executive Director of the Cincinnati branch of Susan G. Komen for the Cure – the organization funding research and treatment for breast cancer, the one with the hauntingly pretty pink ribbons and the “Save the Ta-Tas” bumper stickers.

The found furniture, the leased office in a dying wing of Cincinnati Mills mall are a far cry from Isenogle’s former life as pharmaceutical sales representative, where the money was better – a lot better – the hours more manageable, the career path clear. But what her new position lacks in prestige it more than makes up for fulfillment.

In 2005, 186,467 women were diagnosed nation-wide with breast cancer and more than 40,000 of those cases were fatal.

“Doctors are seeing a lot younger women being diagnosed,” says Amy. “It’s not just older women, but more and more the women being diagnosed are 40 or younger. Part of that is better education, part of that is early detection, but there might be a change in the disease.”

If breast cancer is changing, then it will be people like Amy and organizations like Susan G. Komen that change the way we think about the disease. There was a time in the not-too-distant past when it was unacceptable to say the word breast in the mainstream media. It was taboo for women to talk about their health, a social no-no. It’s only been in recent years that the work of fundraising organizations and advocates has made it acceptable for women to talk about their bodies, to take ownership publicly of their well-being.

And events like the annual Race for the Cure help spearhead and reinforce that social change. The Cincinnati Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is September 12 and is returning to downtown after a multi-year stint in Mason. This is the biggest event of the year for the organization, Amy says it brings in a majority of the $1.5 million the organization uses to fund local breast cancer research and treatment initiatives.

“It’s a shame I never really get to run on race day,” she says. “We’re usually too busy working, but I have been doing a training program with some of the women who plan to run, so that keeps me going.”

That and the picture on her desk.

For more information about the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, to register for the Cincinnati race or to learn more about breast cancer research, treatment or support locally, visit komencincinnati.org.