This week I was priveledged to attend the unveiling of the statue of President Gerald R Ford in the Rotunda of the US Capitol. Former First Lady Betty Ford was unfortunately unable to attend but the event got me thinking about her and her impact on women.
Mrs. Ford was one of the first public figures to go public about having breast cancer. Just weeks after becoming the First Lady in 1974, she had a mastectomy. Her openness about her illness raised the visibility of a disease that Americans had previously been reluctant to talk about. "When other women have this same operation, it doesn't make any headlines," she told Time magazine. "But the fact that I was the wife of the President put it in headlines and brought before the public this particular experience I was going through. It made a lot of women realize that it could happen to them. I'm sure I've saved at least one person—maybe more." Further amplifying the public awareness of breast cancer were reports that several weeks after Ford's cancer surgery Happy Rockefeller the wife of vice president Rockefeller, also underwent a mastectomy. This was a pivotal moment in the history of the fight against Breast Cancer.
Betty Ford is now 93 and a testament to the fact that a strong woman can get through anything and that Breast Cancer can be beat. Thank you for the inspiration Mrs. Ford!!
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