Re: “Bess Myerson, Only Jewish Miss America, Dead at 90” (Jan. 9), it should be noted that not only did Ms. Myerson helped found the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, but she also donated a significant sum and lent her celebrity status to support women facing ovarian cancer, which she fought and survived in 1973.
In the mid-1990s, Ms. Myerson pledged $100,000 to SHARE, a nonprofit support and educational organization for women facing breast and ovarian cancers, enabling us to expand support groups and telephone support for women facing ovarian cancer. At the time, very few direct services existed for this population. Ms. Myerson had kept her own experience with ovarian cancer secret in the 1970s, but became a strong public advocate for those fighting the disease when she became involved with SHARE.
We at SHARE are deeply indebted to Bess Myerson for her strong commitment to helping women facing ovarian cancer, a disease that kills over 13,000 women in the United States annually. In Ms. Myerson’s memory, SHARE is naming the Bess Myerson Ovarian Cancer Support Fund, to be used exclusively for support and educational services for people affected by this dreadful disease.
Executive Director, SHARE
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