Nancy G. Brinker

Founder of @SusanGKomen and @ThePromiseFund | 3x Ambassador | Kept a promise to my sister, built the pink ribbon into a global movement

[Nancy G. Brinker @NancyGBrinker]

Saddened by the passing of Sen. @LindseyGrahamSC . Throughout his years of public service, he recognized the importance of supporting cancer research and improving the lives of patients and families facing serious illness. I extend my heartfelt condolences to his loved ones, colleagues, and the people of South Carolina. May he rest in peace.

[Nancy G. Brinker @NancyGBrinker]

Happy 80th Birthday to a wonderful friend and an extraordinary 43rd President.

Your life has been defined by service, compassion, humility, and an unwavering love of our country. I will always be grateful for your friendship and for the kindness and encouragement that you and @laurawbush have shown me over the years.

Together, you helped give a national platform to the fight against breast cancer at a time when it needed courageous voices. Your leadership and Laura's steadfast commitment helped bring this issue out of the shadows, inspired millions of women to seek early detection, and forever changed countless lives.

Wishing you a wonderful 80th birthday, continued good health, and many more happy years surrounded by your beautiful family and dear friends.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President.

[Nancy G. Brinker @NancyGBrinker]

Every Fourth of July, I find myself reflecting on how grateful I am to be an American.

More than four decades ago, I made a promise to my sister, Suzy, that I would do everything I could to end the silence surrounding breast cancer. At the time, I never could have imagined where that promise would lead.

Only in America could one family’s heartbreak inspire millions of people to come together around a shared cause. Only in America could volunteers, scientists, survivors, physicians, donors, advocates, and communities unite to build a movement that would change the conversation around breast cancer across the globe.

That same spirit continues to inspire me today through the @ThePromiseFund, where we are working to ensure that every woman, regardless of her income, background, or ZIP code, has access to lifesaving screenings, treatment, and care. Once again, I’ve seen what can happen when compassionate people come together with purpose and determination.

America has never been perfect, but I believe our greatest strength has always been our ability to dream big, solve hard problems, and turn hope into action. Time and again, ordinary people have accomplished extraordinary things because they believed they could make a difference.

I will always be proud to call this country home. I am grateful for the freedoms we enjoy, the opportunities we’ve been given, and the countless Americans who choose every day to lift up others.

Happy Independence Day, and God bless America. 🇺🇸

[Eric Brinker @Eric_Brinker]

https://t.co/2CPdoRSiiZ

[Nancy G. Brinker @NancyGBrinker]

Patient navigation is not a luxury in health care. It is essential.

Too many women fall through the cracks because the system is too difficult to navigate alone. At @ThePromiseFund, we see every day how guidance, support, and access save lives.

Proud to see more attention on this important issue.

https://t.co/jYiFvIs4Lr

[Eric Brinker @Eric_Brinker]

Teddy had a little run-in with the law today. Case dismissed for being too cute. 🤣 🚓👮‍♂️Thank you to @MiamiBeachPD best for the fun photo op!

[Nancy G. Brinker @NancyGBrinker]

As a former United States Ambassador to Hungary, I warmly congratulate Péter Magyar @magyarpeterMP on becoming Prime Minister. Hungary is a nation of courage, resilience, and great promise. I wish him success in leading the country toward greater prosperity, unity, and democratic strength. -NB

[Nancy G. Brinker @NancyGBrinker]

Passover is a story of resilience, hope, and the courage to move forward-even in the face of uncertainty.

Those same values have guided my life’s work in the fight against breast cancer. Every woman deserves access to care, support, and the chance to thrive.

As we gather around the Seder table, may we reflect on how far we’ve come—and recommit to the work still ahead.

Wishing you a meaningful Passover. ✡️

[Susie Wiles @SusieWiles]

Last week, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Nearly one in eight women in the United States will face this diagnosis. Every day, these women continue to raise their families, go to work, and serve their communities with strength and determination. I now join their ranks.

I am grateful to have an outstanding team of doctors who detected the cancer early and are guiding my care, and I am encouraged by a very good prognosis.

I am also deeply thankful for the support and encouragement of President Trump as I undergo treatment and continue serving in my role as White House Chief of Staff.

[Nancy G. Brinker @NancyGBrinker]

Breast cancer does not discriminate - it can touch women in every walk of life. Sending strength and prayers to @SusieWiles following her diagnosis. Grateful to @realDonaldTrump for sharing the news and helping raise awareness about the importance of early detection. Wishing her strength and a full recovery. 🎀

[Nancy G. Brinker @NancyGBrinker]

$5 million for women’s health - in one evening.

On Monday in Palm Beach, an extraordinary community came together to help expand lifesaving screenings and care through the @ThePromiseFund.

@Eric_Brinker and I were honored to help lead the effort with a $1M family gift in memory of my parents Marvin & Ellie Goodman and my sister Susan G. Komen.

This is how we save lives. https://t.co/3DrcM4BGQV

[Nancy G. Brinker @NancyGBrinker]

https://t.co/4NIvEjtlS0

[Nancy G. Brinker @NancyGBrinker]

Remembering Linda Custard, a dear friend and extraordinary leader whose impact shaped Dallas and reached far beyond it. From the earliest days of @SusanGKomen to her work across education, the arts, and medical research, Linda led with purpose and heart. We could not have built this work without her.

[Nancy G. Brinker @NancyGBrinker]

Honored to see this recognition, but the real credit belongs to the patients, advocates, clinicians, and partners who have pushed cancer care forward for decades. Progress happens when awareness turns into action and research turns into access. Suzy would be proud of the work and the continued mission ahead.

@SusanGKomen @PromiseFund

[OncoDaily @oncodaily]

Nancy G. Brinker (@NancyGBrinker) Recognized Among The 100 Most Influential People in Oncology in 2025

https://t.co/Rxv4Bh1iSK

@SusanGKomen

#OncoDaily #Oncology #Cancer #Health #Medicine #100InfluentialPeopleinOncology #OncoDaily100

[Nancy G. Brinker @NancyGBrinker]

@BenSasse, thank you for sharing your story with such honesty and courage. Your words are a powerful reminder that behind every diagnosis is a family, a community, and a life of meaning. As someone who has spent decades advocating for patients and their loved ones, I’m holding your family in my thoughts and hopeful that continued progress in cancer research brings more time, more options, and more light for families facing this disease. - Nancy

[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

Friends-

This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.

Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.

Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.

Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.

Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:
“When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,
Ben — and the Sasses

[Nancy G. Brinker @NancyGBrinker]

Statement by Nancy G. Brinker

The antisemitic violence at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia is evil, plain and simple. Jews were targeted for celebrating their faith. That is terrorism.

Western nations that fail to take extremism seriously and fail to protect Jewish communities should be ashamed. Strong words after the fact mean nothing if governments won’t act before lives are lost.

Antisemitism is rising, it is violent, and it is being tolerated. History shows us exactly where that leads. Silence, excuses, and inaction are not neutrality - they are complicity.

Enough.