Dear Friends, Family, and Fellow Supporters of Breast Cancer Action,

Since we wrote to you at the end of June announcing Breast Cancer Action was going to close, we’ve been working vigorously to preserve and protect the organization’s legacy and resources. 

Today, we are writing to let you know about exciting next steps for our beloved organization: we are honored to share that Breast Cancer Action’s resources will be moved to Our Bodies Ourselves Today. This means that individuals experiencing a breast cancer diagnosis, or the diagnosis of a loved one, will still be able to access our truth-telling, patient-centered materials.

Since 1970, Our Bodies Ourselves has had an enormous impact on women's health at both the individual and systemic levels. It has inspired and shaped the women’s health movement, shifted the public discourse on women's health (sound familiar?), and had a powerful influence on the generations of women who have read the foundational text, Our Bodies, Ourselves.  

Building on this decades-long legacy, Our Bodies Ourselves Today is an initiative of the Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights at Suffolk University. The organization is dedicated to equipping users with accurate, evidence-based information, by creating and sharing resources that support the health, sexuality, and human rights of women and gender-expansive people, while advocating for sexual rights, health equity, and reproductive justice.

For more on their history and lens, see Our Bodies Ourselves Today’s website.

Our Bodies Ourselves Today has an expert panel on every subject area, and as part of the plan to steward Breast Cancer Action’s materials, the organization will identify and convene a panel of feminist breast cancer experts to vet and work on breast cancer materials going forward.

The organization will use Breast Cancer Action’s work over the three decades to curate materials, new and archived, where those interested in understanding more about:

• A breast cancer diagnosis and what their options are;
• The links between the environment and a loved one’s diagnosis;
• And materials related to the greater impact of breast cancer on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities will still be able to find that information. 

This is more than a handoff, this is a continuation. Breast Cancer Action will live on through Our Bodies Ourselves Today.

We’re honored to pass our institutional knowledge, resources, and remaining funds onto this historic organization, that has aligned and collaborated with Breast Cancer Action throughout our history, and who will carry the torch forward. Any gifts received by Breast Cancer Action through the end of the year, and any funds remaining with Breast Cancer Action through the many generous donations we have received, will be transferred to Our Bodies Ourselves Today to support their work on breast cancer.

To support the preservation of Breast Cancer Action’s legacy through Our Bodies Ourselves Today’s platforms, consider making an end of year donation to them as they take on this new body of work and preserve Breast Cancer Action’s unmatched legacy. 

Thank you for being part of Breast Cancer Action’s work to achieve health justice for all people at risk of and living with breast cancer. We could not have done this work without each of you. 

When four women gathered in a living room in San Francisco in 1990 to demand governmental action to address the breast cancer epidemic, they could not know all that we would accomplish over nearly 35 years.

From the earliest days, we achieved outsized wins and worked to change how people think and talk about breast cancer. Today, as we send this final email to our cherished community, we have much to celebrate, even as we know that the struggle for health justice continues. 

Against the odds, the lasting impact of our small-and-mighty organization endures, and together we have changed the landscape of breast cancer movement and women’s health. We did the following and so much more:

• Told the truth about the breast cancer epidemic, even when it was unpopular or uncomfortable;
• Provided one-on-one, evidence-based, unbiased information for thousands of individuals facing deeply difficult treatment decisions;
• Refused to blame and shame women for their individual lifestyle decisions and instead targeted the environmental exposures that increase everyone’s risk of the disease;
• Shone a spotlight on the hypocrisy of pinkwashing and forced multimillion dollar corporations to change their behavior;
• Pushed the FDA to uphold high, patient-centered standards when approving new cancer treatments;
• Promoted a precautionary principle that follows the best available science to prevent harm before it occurs;
• And built a community of activists who have shown that together we have the power to change the world.

Thank you for supporting us, for partnering with us, and for your ongoing activism to address and end breast cancer. We are so deeply grateful for each and every person who has had a part in this work, and we know it will live on in our legacy, and in the future of the breast cancer movement that, together, we have helped shape.

Please go to the BCAction website to read about Breast Cancer Action’s fierce history and legacy; we hope this celebration of life, so to speak, brings you solace as we reflect on all we’ve accomplished together. 

In solidarity, 

Breast Cancer Action