2022 Butterfly Ball: Team LBBC hits a grand slam

Jean A. Sachs, LBBC’s CEO, and host of the 2022 Butterfly Ball, led the celebration of the five women who are Changing the Breast Cancer Conversation with significant impact, every day, in communities small and large. Their stories reflect a personal commitment to find solutions and support others. The Donna Noce Colaco Going Beyond awardees demonstrate an impressive range of work and achievement:

• Linda Brassington, a patient advocate living with metastatic breast cancer, strives to make the more people understand the realities of living with this disease by sharing her authentic story;
• Ricki Fairley, who elevates the importance of Black women’s participation in clinical trials to find new therapies that are effective for diverse populations faster;
• Monique Gary DO, MSc, FACS, a physician, researcher, advocate, and expert on cancer and healthcare disparities, who actively seeks a new paradigm in every aspect of care; and
• Meg Cadoux Hirshberg, the co-founder of a program which offers free, evidence-based resources for health and wellness, advocating for the inclusion of complementary therapies in regular care plans.

The recipient of LBBC’s 2022 Founders Award, Angie DeMichele, MD, MSCE, a compassionate, knowledgeable medical oncologist is also transforming breast cancer by finding new and novel ways to detect metastatic breast cancer early.

Despite the palpable love in the room for these honorees, Jean urged everyone to dedicate the evening in someone’s honor and say their name. For Jean, her work is inspired by her mother, who faced breast, uterine, and ultimately died of lung cancer. She broke barriers by openly sharing her story with countless other women who felt alone and scared at a time when anyone disclosing a cancer diagnosis, and, in particular, a breast cancer diagnosis faced stigmatization.

The evening’s co-chairs really stepped up to the plate to make the make the event a big hit. They were Caroline Abi-khattar, Celeste and Brent Celek, Laurie and Steve Katznelson, and Ellen and Joseph McLaughlin.

While the Phil’s bats began to run cold, guests danced, played games, and bid on fabulous auction items. Most of all, everyone cheered LBBC and its community of family, friends, and supporters for its major-league achievements  in providing trusted information and a community of support for anyone impacted by breast cancer.

Missed the celebration this year? You can still donate to support the work of LBBC.

Event highlights

View highlights from the celebration, flip though our photo gallery.

Photos taken by Laurie Beck Peterson.

2022 Founders Awardee

Angie DeMichele, MD, MSCE

Co-Leader, Breast Cancer Research Program Director, Breast Cancer Clinical Trials Unit Alan and Jill Miller Professor in Breast Cancer Excellence

Dr. DeMichele is a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania focusing on breast cancer oncology and molecular epidemiology. Through her research, she seeks to identify markers of outcome and response to therapy, as well as develop targeted therapeutics.

2021 Donna Noce Colaco Going Beyond Honorees

Linda Brassington

Linda was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer in 2009 and metastatic breast cancer in 2018. A resident of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, she has volunteered with Living Beyond Breast Cancer for many years, including as co-chair for LBBC’s Butterfly Ball in 2017 and 2018. She participated in LBBC’s Hear My Voice metastatic advocacy program.

Ricki Fairley

As a stage 3A triple-negative breast cancer survivor/thriver, Ricki’s personal purpose, passion, mission, ministry, and blessing is to bring focus, attention, research, and action to eradicating Black breast cancer.  Ricki co-founded and serves as CEO of TOUCH, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance, is a founding member of #BlackDataMatters, in partnership with Breastcancer.org, Ciitizen, The Center for Health Care Innovation, Morehouse School of Medicine and Susan G. Komen Foundation to encourage and elevate the importance of Black women participating in clinical trial research and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation.

Monique Gary DO, MSc, FACS

Monique Gary, DO, MSc, FACS, is a board certified, fellowship-trained breast surgical oncologist, and medical director of the Grand View Health/Penn Cancer Network cancer program in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, where she also serves as director of the breast program. Dr. Gary serves on the board of several national oncology advocacy and empowerment organizations, serving as medical director for Touch, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance, and a medical advisor for Tigerlily Foundation.

Meg Cadoux Hirshberg

Meg is the co-founder of the Anticancer Lifestyle Program or ACLP (www.anticancerlifestyle.org), which offers free, evidence-based tools, tips, and information about lifestyle behaviors that have been shown to reduce the risk of cancer, cancer recurrence, and chronic illness. Living with metastatic breast cancer for more than 20 years, Meg understands how lost and disempowered survivors can feel when they lack a plan for optimizing health and wellness that may affect long-term outcomes.