This tribute was originally published by The National Breast Cancer Coalition.
The National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) mourns the loss of Dr. Susan Love, who died on July 2, 2023, after a long struggle with leukemia. Love was a founder of NBCC and a true advocate for patients.
Knowing that ending breast cancer requires advocate voices and action, Susan Love was part of a small group of women who came together in 1991 to form NBCC. Through the strength of her charisma, brilliance and firm belief in women’s power, she helped unite activists, survivors, researchers, policymakers and grassroots and national organizations to work together toward ending the disease for everyone.
Susan Love was an innovator, a leader, a compassionate doctor, an author, and a researcher. She wrote The Breast Book, which became the bible for women and men diagnosed with breast cancer. And she led NBCC advocates on the dance floor every year at our annual meeting.
I started to realize how women weren’t getting information. If they came in with a lump or what they thought was a lump, the doctor would say, ‘Don’t worry your little head about that, dear.’ Most of these patients were scared to death. I realized I could make a contribution.
Dr. Susan Love
NBCC would not exist were it not for Susan Love, and her loss is felt deeply across the breast cancer advocacy and research communities.
“Susan was not just a visionary leader, she was a dear friend to so many of us who became NBCC advocates. She was there for all of us every moment we needed her,” said NBCC president Fran Visco. “We will miss her irreverence, her ability to lead us down paths we never even envisioned, her compassion and her laughter—not to mention her dancing.”
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