n 1995, a year after Jane Torres was diagnosed with breast cancer, she founded the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation.
At the time, the Foundation consisted of five women on a mission to end breast cancer through advocacy, education and research. Since then, the Foundation has become a powerful statewide organization with supporters throughout Florida.
In 2002, the Florida Legislature approved the “End Breast Cancer” license plate which funds education and research grants.
“I think it was in May of 2002 when I went up to Tallahassee and [then governor] Jeb Bush signed this into law,” said Torres. “We are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the enactment of the Florida legislature.”
The Florida Breast Cancer Foundation Miami-Dade Shades of Pink Committee will host “Take Two – Celebrating ‘Mother’ Again,” to honor mothers, any woman who has made a difference and the 10th license plate anniversary. The event will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at The Rusty Pelican. The luncheon will be emceed by Channel 10 news anchor and reporter Constance Jones.
Since 2002, the organization has received close to $5 million from license plate sales from across the state.
“We take $25 from each plate or renewal,” explained Torres. “It’s an easy way for people to make a difference in the fight against breast cancer. We all need a license plate, so if you’re going to get one, get one that goes for a good cause, and I can’t think of any better than research into breast cancer.”
The money goes for research grants to organizations and institutions intent on ending breast cancer. Research is making inroads in the study of genetic components and other breakthrough studies, explained Torres.
With $5 million in research money being put to good use, is a cancer cure right around the corner?
“The answer is, we’ve made some progress; we have not made enough,” said Torres “I think we really need to find out what causes cancer. That way we would be able to prevent it.”
Treatment, on the other hand, has improved significantly.
“Hormonal treatments that didn’t exist 15 years ago really make a difference because they block the receptors,” said Torres, “and we’ve come up with the ability to make genetic profiling for individualized treatment, and hopefully treat each person based on their genomic profile whether they need chemotherapy or not or what type would be best. So we’ve come a long way with that.”
Another important discovery was when the Women’s Health Initiative enrolled 20,000-plus women and, after studying them, discovered hormone replacement therapy causes breast cancer and increased heart disease risk, explained Torres.
“So there has been a drop in breast cancer diagnosis, and we attribute it to mostly to the fact that women have stopped taking hormone replacement therapy, which is good,” she said.
Another discovery that came out of the women’s health initiative is that women who are at high risk for breast cancer can take therapies to reduce that risk.
“And we also learned that 85 percent of breast cancer is not hereditary,” as once believed. “We just don’t know why,” explained Torres, “but by buying these license plates, we are putting more money in research so we can study why and how to prevent it.”
Torres encourages all to “come help us celebrate at the luncheon. We would certainly love that.”
More importantly, “please get the license plate and help support breast cancer research. We would love to have more people making a difference.”
For the 10th anniversary End Breast Cancer license plates luncheon tickets, call 305-631-2134 or visit www.floridabreastcancer.org. Tickets are $75 per person.