A breast cancer survivor on changing odds for Black women
Ricki Fairley, a 11-year late stage breast cancer survivor and advocate, is fighting hard to improve the chances for Black women to overcome breast cancer
NEW YORK (AP) — Ricki Fairley, a 11-year late-stage breast cancer survivor and advocate, is fighting hard to improve the chances for Black women to overcome breast cancer and to address the racial disparities in treatment.
Before her diagnosis in 2011, Fairley, 66, was a seasoned marketing executive with stints at such companies as Coca-Cola, Nabisco and Johnson & Johnson. Then, her diagnosis with a late-stage breast cancer subtype that quickly spread to her chest wall dramatically changed her life.
Told she only only two years to live, Fairley turned to more aggressive treatments that left her with no evidence of disease. Fairley started to embrace breast cancer advocacy for Black women. But then in 2020, she quit her job to help start a nonprofit foundation called Touch, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance to help turn the tide on Black women's survivorship after seeing a mountain of studies showing how Black women are disproportionately affected by breast cancer.
The nonprofit group collaborates with patients, survivors, advocacy organizations, and pharmaceutical companies among others to improve breast cancer care for Black women. In January, she started her “When We Trial" project to recruit Black women for trials. Since May, she has recruited 4,100 Black women to clinical trial portals.
