Evelyn Lauder, Founder of Pink Ribbon, Dead at 75, of Non-Genetic Ovarian Cancer

Evelyn Lauder, founder of pink ribbon for cancer awareness, died at age 75 from complications of non-genetic ovarian cancer, which had been diagnosed in 2007, at her home in New York City, the Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (ELC) announced today. Her family is said to have been at her bedside as she passed away.

In her long career as an executive at cosmetics giant Estee Lauder Cos., the company founded by her mother-in-law, Lauder worked with many shades of red, peach, bronze and even blues, but pink was her color and the hue that changed her life.

So in 1992, Evelyn worked with her friend Alexandra Penney, the former editor-in-chief of Self magazine, to create the pink ribbon campaign for breast cancer awareness. It started small with Lauder and her husband, Leonard, largely financing the little bows given to women at department store makeup counters to remind them about breast exams.

As the campaign evolved, there were fundraising products, until Congress designated October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The campaign raised over $330 million in donations, of which $50 million came from Estée Lauder and associates. The donations went to "The Breast Cancer Research Foundation", founded by Evelyn Lauder.

Born Evelyn Hausner in 1936 in Vienna, Austria, she fled Nazi-occupied Europe with her parents, and they settled in the U.S. She attended public schools in New York City and Hunter College, part of the City University of New York.

As a college freshman, she met her husband, the elder son of Estee Lauder and whose family owned what was then a small cosmetics company.

"We had five products in the line, we only had two or three colors in our lipsticks," she told cable news channel NY1 in 2005. "It was a baby company."  Evelyn came up with the name of its popular Clinique brand during the 1960s. Most recently, she held the title of senior corporate vice president.

Leonard and Evelyn married in 1959. Leonard Lauder is now chairman emeritus of the company. Estee Lauder died in 2004 at 97.

Evelyn Lauder is survived by Leonard A. Lauder, Chairman Emeritus of the Estée Lauder Companies, William Lauder, Executive Chairman of the same company, Gary Lauder, Managing Director of Lauder Partners LLC, and five grandchildren.

Photograph: Estée Lauder Companies Inc.

Vitamin C Helps Fight Breast Cancer and Lowers Blood Pressure

I need to correct something I said early about the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month or the pink month.   I said the organizer is not forthcoming and does not tell readers who sponsor the campaign. I was wrong! The organizer actually discloses a list of the sponsors in detail.   But I was still right in that the campaign does not mean to encourage women to prevent breast cancer.   Rather it means to have women to receive screening and early detection, which are good, but not the women's best interest.

 

The first on the list of sponsors is American cancer Society or ACS, the richest not-for-profit organization in the world as some critics call.   Sponsors also include American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists representing 51,000 physicians, American College of Radiology representing 32,000 radiologists, American Society of Clinical Oncology, representing 25,000 cancer physicians, and AstraZeneca Healthcare Foundation organized by the drug maker of Arimidex and Tamoxifen.   Some other major medical associations and government agencies are also listed as sponsors for the national Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

 

The campaign organizer seems to act as a service provider to help patients with information on breast cancer, its diagnosis and treatment including early detection and mammograms/screening. There is lots of information on its website for that effort.   But there is nothing about prevention meant to stop the malignancy from developing in the first place, which is understandable. If there is no breast cancer or the incidence is significantly reduced by some effective prevention measures, the cancer business would see a huge dip in revenue.

 

I agree that this campaign gives breast cancer survivors some comfortable. They feel that many people and organizations stand behind them and help them fight the disease that could take their life at any minute.   In a sense, many patients benefit from this breast cancer awareness campaign.

 

But it seems to me that the industry and the government do not seem interested much in research to find out how to prevent the disease in the first place, which unfortunately could disservice the industry.   The best interest for the industry could be to find some treatment that can sustain the patients’ lives, but not cure the disease.

 

Breast cancer is expected to be diagnosed in one in every 8 women in their lifetime in the United States. It is up to women how to act to deal with the risk.   They can wait to get the disease and then resort to doctors and hospitals for treatments that are no cure for the disease or they can be proactive and do something to prevent the disease from developing in the first place.

 

There are many things women can do reduce the risk of breast cancer that vitamizes 182,000 women and kill 40,000 each year in the U.S.   But the most important thing to remember is that no one should wait for her doctors or the government to give her the answers regarding the prevention of breast cancer.