Celebrating the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation’s 20th year, over the next six months leading up to the annual Walk For A Cure, readers will find the TBBCF newsletter’s Timeline Celebrating the Foundation’s 20th Anniversary.

Each month, we’ll look at milestones on the two-decade timeline and share highlights and stories from those impactful days.

But in this, the first 20th anniversary story, we are celebrating the heart and soul of the Foundation, Norma Logan. Her fierce will and faith made it happen. Without Norma’s vision, there would be no Foundation. No millions raised. No dozens of brilliant breast cancer researchers funded.

 

It all began on a walk. 

Norma was diagnosed with stage II breast cancer in 2003. After treatment, in 2004 she was declared cancer-free. Not long after, Norma and her good friend and colleague, Sandy Maniscalco, were among the many who participated in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day, 60-mile walk to raise funds for breast cancer research and education with team Bust A Move. The team raised $80,000. 

Around the same time, Norma got the devastating diagnosis: Stage 4 breast cancer. It slowed but did not stop her.

Soon, planning began for the 2005 Komen 3-Day in Boston, where Bust A Move would raise a whopping $130,000. 

On a casual walk after the Komen event, Norma told Sandy: “Just so you know, the money we raised, 40 percent went to overhead. That’s it! We’re starting our own foundation.”

Sandy was on board.

“She always had a positive spin on everything,” Sandy shared about her friend.

Norma and Sandy began working on a business plan for the non-profit, where every dollar raised would fund breast cancer research. In September, she sent a ‘Birth of the Foundation’ letter to the team.

Norma wrote that she’d learned through the Komen annual report that of dollars raised, there was a “75/25 split, namely 75 cents of every dollar raised goes to programs, and 25 cents goes to overhead. This is considered good for a non-profit.”  And with a bit more research, she found that on the 2004 3-Day, “the split was 60/40.”

“My heart sank. It may not have broken, but that information did leave a deep crack. In two years, our team has raised $200,000, yet according to this split, $80,000 went to overhead. I thought of everyone's hard work at fundraising. And I thought of my personal needs. People don't get cured at Stage 4; they only live longer through better treatment options.”

“I talked with Sandy about establishing our own non-profit. A non-profit where 100%, yes 100%, of every penny raised goes DIRECTLY to breast cancer research. I realize this will come as a surprise for folks, and you all probably have justifiable doubts. But Sandy and I are not only convinced we can pull this off, but are also really, really excited.”

In fact, they’d already brought aboard an accountant and lawyer to work with them. 

 

‘You’ll stick with this until we cure cancer, Nick.’ It wasn’t a question. 

The Foundation was created and named for Terri Brodeur, a young mother who died of breast cancer in late 2005. Soon, Norma began recruiting for Foundation board members and for scientists to be part of the Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board. One of those members was Nick Saccomano.

 “I remember her … talking about far-reaching goals and on the back of that came, ‘You’ll stick with this until we cure cancer, Nick.’ That’s what she told me. It wasn’t a question. So I said, ‘OK. What do we do after that?’ That was the level of the discussion, and we agreed that this wouldn’t be a short-term commitment.”

It’s not easy to say no to Norma. In fact, who would? Who could? Norma’s vision, with Sandy’s initial faith and commitment, was a dream not deferred but a dream realized.

“Norma made you want to follow her anywhere,” Sandy said.

TBBCF treasurer and CPA Stacey Gualtieri has been there from the beginning. Actually, from before the beginning. Norma was a client of Stacey’s so when she and Sandy began talking about creating a non-profit, Norma asked Stacey for advice. The women met and Stacey laid out how one creates a 501c3. And, she told them that she’d help do that work at no cost. 

“I think it was after the second meeting when I let them know that I was going to be doing this for nothing. I was going to donate my time to get the Foundation going,” Stacey recalled. At a follow-up meeting, where she and Norma were alone together for a few moments, Norma said, “It’s too late for me. But I want to make sure it’s not too late for other women.” 

Stacey was deeply moved. And it wouldn’t be the first time.

“I thought, I’ll follow you wherever you go.” 

At an early Foundation meeting at her home, Norma, donning a bright scarf on her head, made a presentation telling the gathered, “We are going to cure cancer.”

Stacey said moments like these “pulled me in.” Here was Norma with Stage 4 breast cancer,“ working hard to save women's lives.” 

So when Norma and Sandy invited her to sit on the TBBCF Board, Stacey was already in the “Pick me! Pick Me!” frame of mind.

And Stacey has never left. 

Another original member and TBBCF Scientific Advisory Board co-chair John LaMattina, PhD, agreed wholeheartedly that “Norma’s vision was the foundation of the TBBCF.”

“A dynamo,” he said, “Norma’s vision still drives us today.” 

In her 2005 letter to the team, Norma shared a favorite quote that she said, “Captures the spirit of this non-profit.” 

"Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have." Margaret Mead 

Norma died of breast cancer in April 2006, but not before hosting the first TBBCF general meeting.

Her guiding spirit has lit the way since.