A Glimmer of Hope Inc

About Glimmer of Hope

In the late 1980s, Diana Napper found herself juggling a family and a career, just like many other young women.  She and her husband were living in New Jersey, anxious to return to their hometown of Pittsburgh, PA where they planned to begin raising a family. 

By 1990 Diana's world had turned upside down.  She and her husband and family did indeed move back to Pittsburgh, but she left behind her best friend, Carol Jo Weiss Friedman, dying of breast cancer.

She and her friend kept in touch, visited, and talked with one another often.  But on Christmas Eve in 1990 Carol Jo lost her battle.

Carol Jo had always encouraged Diana to pursue her dream of opening a jewelry business.  Before her death, she made Diana promise to pursue that dream and told her that when she became successful she could take the money and open a hospice in her name.

With that thought always in her mind, the local jewelry designer, now taking care of three small children and a husband, decided to design a pin that would capture the pain and emotion that she and her friend had gone through.

It didn't take her long to create what she saw as "A Glimmer of Hope"  -- something for everyone whose lives have been touched by breast cancer.  Designed with a teardrop Swarovski crystal, (symbolic of the tears shed over the disease) and topped with a pearl, (representing hope), the pin became a reality in 1994.  In 2006, Diana introduced a complimenting bracelet to the pin with the same symbolic pearl and crystals.

Since the first day she began wearing the pin, Diana has had complete strangers stop her and ask her about it instantly wanting to know how they can help in her fight against this insidious disease. With only the support of volunteers, friends and family behind her, 14,000 pins have been sold as part of the over $1,000,000 raised specifically for breast cancer research.

With all the recent discoveries and talk of a drug to cure the disease, this 50-year-old jewelry designer, (now with four children ranging in age from 11 to 22), is even more driven to pursue her own, and Carol Jo's dream, and to give the rest of us "A Glimmer of Hope."

Organization Overview:

Glimmer of Hope is a Pennsylvania non-profit organization that has been supporting breast cancer research since 1994. The organization has raised over $1 million to further fund the largest premenopausal breast cancer study in the United States.

Mission:

• Support the reasearch surrounding breast cancer within women under 40.
• Glimmer of Hope is currently helping to fund a study which aims to:
  • Ascertain future reproductive potential in young women treated with chemotherapy for breast cancer
  • Ascertain the impact of chemotherapy on the patients’ hormonal status 
  • Ascertain the safety of subsequent pregnancy after a diagnosis of breast cancer since pregnancy can greatly increase the level of hormones that can promote the growth of breast cancer.
  • Ascertain the impact of breast cancer treatment from a quality of life standpoint. 
• Provide funding for genetic testing in economically disadvantaged young women diagnosed with breast cancer since the diagnosis of BRCA mutations can have far ranging impact on the patient and her children.

 

Contact Us:

A Glimmer of Hope Foundation
P.O. Box 908
Wexford, PA 15090

Phone: 1-800-454-6746