Nancy Goodman Brinker has been named this year’s recipient of Saint Louis University’s Sword of Ignatius Loyola. The sword is named after the founder of the Society of Jesus, Inigo Lopez de Loyola, and it embodies the Ignatian vision of service toward others.

“The Sword of Loyola is given in recognition of individual achievement, such as that of Nancy Brinker, a woman who gives of herself to humankind for the greater glory of God,” stated University President Lawrence Biondi, S.J.

Susan G. Komen, Brinker’s sister, died from breast cancer in 1980, but before Komen’s death, Brinker promised her that she would spend the rest of her life working toward the elimination of breast cancer as a fatal disease.

Brinker, a breast cancer survivor herself, founded the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in 1982 to fulfill that promise. It has become the mission of the Komen Foundation: To eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease, and to advance research, education, screening and treatment.

This Foundation flourishes today as one of the leaders in the fight against breast cancer. According to the Komen Foundation Web site, more than $240 million has been

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raised by the Foundation and its affiliates for breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment.

Aside from work at the Komen Foundation, Brinker is also the current United States Ambassador to Hungary. Brinker will be awarded the Sword of Ignatius Loyola at the SLU Cancer Center Gala on April 12 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Clayton, Mo.

The Cancer Center boasts the latest advancements in cancer research, detection, prevention and education-including an advanced Breast Imaging Center.

“It is appropriate that Nancy receive this award at the inaugural celebration of the new Saint Louis University Cancer Center. She has done so much to promote the treatment and cure of breast cancer, which is one of the major pieces of the cancer puzzle that the Saint Louis University Cancer Center team is working hard to solve,” Biondi stated.

The SLU Cancer Center Gala will begin at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails, followed by dinner and dancing. Individual tickets are $150, but there are various sponsorship levels at which one can participate. For those interested in more information on sponsorship or how to acquire individual tickets, contact Patty Peterson, the chairwoman of the gala committee, or SLU Event Services at 314-977-6338.

Previous recipients of the Sword of Ignatius Loyola include Harry S. Truman, Katherine Dunham, Thomas F. Eagleton, Archbishop John May and John C. Danforth.

To find out more information about the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, visit the Foundation’s Web site, http://www.komen.org.