The Most Inspirational Breast Cancer Survivor Award is given every year to a distinguished individual in Orange County who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to advance breast health and breast cancer awareness and education through volunteer efforts.  The 2007 Most Inspirational Breast Cancer Survivor is Chris Tannous.  Ms.  Tannous was honored at a ceremony that took place on March 31, 2007 at the Komen Breast Health Symposium and Luncheon.

Chris Tannous
2007 Most Inspirational Breast Cancer Survivor

Chris Tannous is an eloquent, informed and passionate two-time breast cancer survivor and breast health advocate who has transformed her battle with the disease into a catalyst for involvement in awareness building and research.  In the fight against breast cancer, Chris is a professional, savvy and strategically thinking ally, as well as a 2006 Komen Cameo Award recipient for volunteerism.  A reviewer of grants for the Department of Defense, as well as a longtime Komen Peer Grant Reviewer on the national level, she is an active member of the Komen Orange County Affiliate Board of Directors.  As Grants Chair, Chris has reviewed and revamped our grants documentation, committee structure and grant review process.  A good steward of the funds entrusted to Komen, she is also diligent about site visits and holding Grant Recipients to a higher level of accountability.

A longtime volunteer for American Cancer Society. Chris has been a tireless chair for their signature fundraising event, Daffodil Days, as well as a trained Reach to Recovery volunteer assisting other survivors through the journey. Through this ACS program, her volunteer efforts span the spectrum of assistance from being a fellow survivor newly diagnosed patients could talk to and be comforted by, to chauffeuring breast cancer survivors to treatments if they did not have means of transportation.

A former educator, Chris deeply understands the role "learning" plays in helping us reach our goal of education, early detection and finding a cure. A valuable asset during Komen's recent Strategic Planning sessions, she brought a fresh and sound survivor's perspective… always with the goal of furthering our promise to wipe breast cancer off the face of the earth. Chris is an incredible, courageous women, and a wonderful example of the power of turning a devastating diagnosis into a promise to make life better for others.

Jeannette Morrow
2006 Most Inspirational Breast Cancer Survivor

Jeannette Morrow was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993.  As a means of coping with this diagnosis she became interested in learning all that she could about the disease and began attending support groups.  Jeannette describes herself as a "support group junkie" and patient advocate.   She is a source of information, comfort and inspiration for the women she comes into contact with.  Jeannette has taken many newly diagnosed women under her wings and helps guide them through the process of after diagnosis treatment and care.  Often, she will take these women to their doctor's appointments and bring them to support groups if they are reluctant to go alone. 

Jeannette was one of the early supporters of the Komen Foundation and served as the Survivor Chair for the fifth annual Race for the Cure®.  She has served on the board for Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization Southland Affiliate and Breast Cancer Survivors.   She is a certified Y-ME hotline counselor and trained volunteer for the American Cancer Society programs "Reach to Recovery" and "Look Good, Feel Better."  Jeannette has been a long time supporter of the Orange County Breast Cancer Coalition and served on the committee that revised the Orange County Cancer Coalition's resource guide.  She is a member of the National Breast Cancer Coalition and Institutional Review Board at Fountain Valley Hospital and Regional Cancer Center. 

Jeannette has been married to her husband, Joe, for 47 years.  They have two children, Jim and Jeannene, and four grandchildren, David, Cheree, Chanel, and Taylor.  She has a degree in costume design, and currently works as a cosmetologist in Huntington Beach, where she has lived for 38 years.

Dr. Kae Ja Pai
2005 Most Inspirational Breast Cancer Survivor

Dr. Kea Ja Pai, 63, a breast cancer oncologist, is the visible and highly respected face of Orange County’s Korean community, a group she feels is culturally and linguistically isolated.  As Vice-Chair of the Fountain Valley Regional Hospital Department of Family Practice, Dr. Pai brings breast cancer education and treatment to the county’s underserved Korean women.  

In 1991, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, discovered in a mammogram on Saturday, and the following Monday she had surgery and a total mastectomy.  She remembers feeling lonely when she was told of the diagnosis.  “It wasn’t that I was afraid of dying,” she notes, “it was just that I was lonely.”  Perhaps that is why she is such a supportive, bigger-than-life presence to breast cancer patients with whom she now works.  

Her perspective on her situation is both compassionate and thought-provoking. She remembers that upon learning she had breast cancer, her first act was a prayer.  “I wanted to thank the Lord that it was I who had it.  I thought of my brothers and their wives and families and thought that it was better that I, unmarried and without children, was the one to get it.”  

Other challenges in her life had tested her strength and resolve, including a bout with polio when she was three years old that left her with a pronounced limp.  She credits this early difficulty with making her, to this day, an over-achiever.  

Dr. Pai devotes enormous amounts of her time to those who might not otherwise have life-saving care.  Her Saturdays are dedicated to providing clinical breast exams to more than 800 underserved Korean women annually through YWCA of North Orange County ENCOREplus.  Initially finding no breast health education materials in her native language, Dr. Pai translated, funded and printed information on breast cancer and 50 additional kinds of cancer, and organized volunteers to distribute the booklets.   

Working with Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, she established a support group for Korean women, a Korean Cancer Help Line and gives monthly health lectures.  She has also taken her message of early detection to Mexico, Peru, Turkey and Egypt as a medical missionary.



Carolina Montez
2004 Most Inspirational Breast Cancer Survivor

Carolina Montez was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2001. It was then that she began to face the battle against her own fear. A fear that was not unfounded; her mother and two of her aunts lost their lives to breast cancer. After her mastectomy, Carolina could not dare look at her own body. She even showered in her clothes to avoid facing her body.

After hearing about Renovación, a Spanish-language support group, she timidly attended her first meeting. To Carolina, that support group gave her the strength and desire to "keep moving ahead and to do something for the community". To her delight, "The ladies at the group were very courageous and inspiring."

Carolina initially seemed hesitant and scared, but blossomed into a passionately vocal and ardent activist for breast cancer education and early detection. She has been speaking to community groups of up to 100 men and women. Public speaking came naturally to her and she has openly shared her experience and the early cancer detection message.

Emerging triumphant, Carolina overcame her worst fears. And in the process, she brings encouragement, education, support and much warmth to the hundreds of people she has touched. In addition to her public speaking skills, she showers her audience with respect and love, preparing every detail of the day's event - from the meeting room to snacks.

A volunteer for the Latina Cancer Task Force of the O.C. Cancer Detection Partnership, Carolina continues her labor of love with the Spanish-language support group. She has also taken an active role in the planning and implementation of mobile mammography screenings. A tireless breast cancer activist, she follows through with women who schedule a mammogram and ensures that they comply and show up to their appointments.

"I have seen several older Hispanic women get their mammogram for the first time. It's a wonderful feeling to know that I can help them with something so important."

Heather Gilbert
2003 Most Inspirational Breast Cancer Survivor

When Lake Forest resident Heather Gilbert was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996, the Stanford graduate was a career-oriented Software Development Project Manager for Unisys Corporation. Today, Gilbert is the full-time volunteer Chairman of the Board of Breast Cancer Survivors, a nonprofit organization she helped found in 1997. The foundation provides financial assistance to cover living expenses for breast cancer patients who are unable to work due to surgeries and treatment.

For her commitment to Breast Cancer Survivors and other local breast cancer organizations, Gilbert was honored as Orange County's Most Inspirational Survivor for 2003.

Orange County's Most Inspirational Breast Cancer Survivor Award is presented to a survivor who has demonstrated an understanding and awareness of issues related to breast cancer survivorship and has made a commitment to educating and helping others survive and cope with the disease.

"I'm fortunate that at this stage in my life I'm able to retire and help women battling breast cancer who are physically unable to work," says Gilbert. "These women need to focus on recovery without the stress of worrying about rent and other bills. It is also important and rewarding to share the experience of my own journey with others who are traveling the same road."

Gilbert has also volunteered for Healing Odyssey, a weekend retreat and follow-up program for survivors, and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. At the Komen Foundation, Gilbert has been a member of the Speakers Bureau, the Komen Orange County Race for the Cure Committee, Links to the Cureô Committee and Spring Luncheon Committee. In addition, Gilbert has been a Top Pledge Raiser for the Komen Orange County Race for the Cure , personally raising more than $41,000. For her work in the breast cancer community, Gilbert was honored in 2000 as a Local Community Hero at the BMW Ultimate Drive.

One on one is perhaps how Gilbert has had the most impact on the lives of women, educating them about early detection and helping newly diagnosed women in person and on the Internet. With a Masters in Computer Science from University of Wisconsin, she shares her computer expertise helping patients and their families find breast cancer information and support resources on the World Wide Web.

"My first venture into support on the Internet was to send a note of encouragement to a woman who was about to undergo a biopsy, facing a possible fourth recurrence of her disease," shares Gilbert. "Today, we are the best of friends, although we live nearly 3,000 miles apart! We have visited twice, including one weekend gathering of over 20 members of our online support group from all over the United States."