Shortly before her 19th birthday, 2008 Baker graduate Emily Nickel felt a lump in her left breast. Her mother reassured her that there were multiple explanations for the abnormality and that at her age, breast cancer was very unlikely. However, the lump continued to grow.

Nickel turned to a doctor for answers and, after several tests, she was advised to undergo surgery in order to remove the tumor.

“Your life kind of stops for a second or two when you receive those test results,” Nickel said. “I knew the statistics and with a family history like mine, I knew I was definitely at risk.”

Although Nickel cannot remember exactly what she thought when she first received the news, or how she felt about the possibility of losing her hair, her health or her life, she can clearly recall the acute relief she experienced when she learned that the tumor the surgeon removed was, in fact, benign.

In spite of being declared cancer-free, Nickel, a member of Zeta Tau Alpha, continues her work to promote the education of women about breast cancer. In midst of the flurry of facts, flyers and pink ribbons that have spread across campus during this year’s Breast Cancer Awareness month, Professor of Biology and Baker Alumni Darcy Russell reflects on her friend’s four-year battle against breast cancer.

In the fall of 1980, Donna Bower Drayer and Russell graduated from Baker University as good friends and sorority sisters. They shared meals at the Zeta Tau Alpha house, a passion for science and many laughs over the four years at Baker, and then went on to spend another two years together at Kansas State University’s graduate school. They were “kindred spirits,” Russell said.

When Drayer moved away with her husband, the two friends closed the distance with phone calls, e-mails and cards. When the news came that she had been diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer, her Zeta Tau Alpha sorority sisters rallied around her. However, despite Drayer’s attempts to reassure her friends and family, they all began to make their goodbyes after four years of treatments, tears and pain.

“You always have hope, and she was such a fighter but when the last round of chemo didn’t work, we knew she wasn’t going to win that battle,” Russell said.

About a month before Russell would get the chance to see Drayer for the first time in almost twenty years, and shortly after a group of Drayer’s sorority sisters put together a care package full of pictures, letters and their love, Drayer stopped fighting. In the year that Drayer passed away, about 548,000 people also lost their battle with breast cancer. 

“Donna’s the only one in my life that’s died from it, but she’s not the only one that’s lived with it,” Russell said.

Russell remembers Drayer as a passionate, serious and nerdy woman with a love for sewing. She remembers her as genuinely nice person, a spiritual individual and a great mother. But more than that, Russell simply remembers.

“I try to wear pink to support the cause. I donate my time, and some of my money,” Russell said. “What we do is a testament to all women who have gone through this but for me, it’s about Donna.”

Through man power and partnerships with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the NFL and Yoplait yogurt, to name a few, the Zeta Tau Alpha’s philanthropy has grown along with the epidemic that is now affecting one in eight women. Each dollar raised is done so in memory of the men and women who have fought for their lives.

“Every Zeta has a face in her heart when she works on this project,” Russell said. “It just pushes the whole thing forward.”