Sixteen years ago, Zero Breast Cancer’s Dipsea Hike was founded in memory of Andrea “Annie” Fox. Annie worked for the county, was an active athlete—a member of the Tamalpa Runners—and she loved Mt. Tamalpais. She was a founding board member of Marin Breast Cancer Watch, which is now Zero Breast Cancer. Annie was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 31 and died of her disease at age 35 in 2002 just before the first hike. Amongst others, Annie was survived by her mother Marjorie Bonner and her significant other at the time, Chris Stewart—a tireless organizer and volunteer who makes our annual hike possible.

Marjorie was a donor to Marin Breast Cancer Watch since 2001, she founded the Andrea Fox Fund managed by the Marin County Board of Supervisors and continued to support Zero Breast Cancer for over 15 years.

Last year, ZBC learned that Marjorie had passed away just two days before the 15th Annual Dipsea Hike, although we did not know it at the time. Over the next several months we learned that Marjorie had made a major bequest to ZBC. At this year’s hike, we announced publicly for the first time that the amount Marjorie has entrusted to Zero Breast Cancer is over $900,000!

The bequest was made in honor of Annie’s memory and donated to ZBC without restriction. The ZBC Board of Directors, together with our Executive Director Rose Barlow, will be planning how to leverage this legacy gift to make the most impact towards the vision we all share today—a world with zero breast cancer. For planning purposes our starting point is our mission: Zero Breast Cancer promotes breast cancer risk reduction through translation of scientific research and evidence-based recommendations that support health and wellness at key stages of life.

We are grateful to Marjorie for supporting our mission now and in the future and giving us her vote of confidence that we will continue to make an impact.