Accomplished model, actress and breast cancer survivor is keynote guest at 25th anniversary luncheon.
Now in its 25th year, Celebrating Women has raised more than $40 million to advance the fight against breast cancer and enhance treatment and care for the more than 20,000 women diagnosed with this disease in Texas each year.
This year, the Celebrating Women community continues its mission to raise money that fuels innovative research, advances early detection and creates patient-centered programs to care
for women and their families facing a breast cancer diagnosis.
“Breast cancer has touched the lives of so many women and families around the world, and I’m so proud of our Dallas community for leading the way in the fight against this disease,” said Linda Custard, Celebrating Women Silver Jubilee Presiding Chair. “As Celebrating Women marks 25 years of impact, I continue to be inspired by the physicians who remain so committed to this cause, by the patients who bravely share their stories and by the thousands of community members who stand together in this fight.”
Joining us in the fight for this year’s milestone anniversary luncheon will be Olivia Munn, our featured guest.
Olivia is an accomplished model and actress known for her roles in The Rock, The Newsroom, X-Men, The LEGO Movie and Iron Man 2. An Oklahoma native, she spent the majority of her childhood in Tokyo, Japan, and speaks fluent Japanese. Olivia attended the University of Oklahoma after moving back to the U.S. and relocated to Los Angeles, later joining the Emmy-winning Comedy
Central series The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as a correspondent.
Despite having normal mammograms and genetic testing results that showed she was negative for more than 90 different cancer-causing gene mutations, Olivia’s doctor performed a Tyrer-Cuzick
(T-C model) breast cancer risk assessment, which indicated she was still at high risk. In 2023, armed with this information, Olivia had an MRI and learned she had breast cancer in both breasts. A biopsy showed it was an aggressive, fast-growing subtype of the disease.
“The ability to tailor treatment to a patient’s tumor biology is crucial to optimize outcomes,” said Joyce O’Shaughnessy, MD, Celebrating Women Chair for Breast Cancer Research. “We have learned a great deal about which therapies are most effective against hormone receptor-positive, high-grade breast cancer, and the survival rates have substantially improved due to the results from numerous clinical trials over the past decade.”
“By sharing my story, I hope to empower women to find out their lifetime risk assessment score…I hope it lets doctors know about the test and to please take it seriously.”
—Olivia Munn
Olivia’s cancer was caught early, and she faced the challenge head-on by having a double mastectomy and oophorectomy to reduce exposure to the hormones that the breast cancer
was dependent on. She is now a vocal advocate for risk assessments, which can help women understand their risk and intercept cancer earlier—a mission closely aligned with the Baylor Scott & White High-Risk Breast Screening Program.
“By sharing my story, I hope to empower women to find out their lifetime risk assessment score, and I hope it lets doctors know about the test and to please take it seriously,” Olivia said in an ABC World News Tonight interview.
The 25th Anniversary Celebrating Women Luncheon will be Friday, October 18, 2024, at the Hilton Anatole hotel. For more information on sponsorships, tickets or how you can get involved in this year’s efforts, visit BSWHealth.com/CelebratingWomen.
