Andrea Jung, Chairman and CEO, Avon Products joins breast cancer survivors from nearly 50 countries around the globe at the Global Breast Cancer Survivors Day Celebration in New York City. (more images)

New York, NY (October 4, 2007) – The Avon Foundation today kicked off Breast Cancer Awareness Month with the annual Global Breast Cancer Survivors Day Celebration, which was the capstone event for the third annual Avon Walk Around the World for Breast Cancer. Honored guests included 50 breast cancer survivors from around the world at the luncheon and presentation held at The Rainbow Room in New York City’s Rockefeller Center.

Speakers included Andrea Jung, Chairman and CEO of Avon Products, Inc., Susan M Love, MD of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, Marcy Schwam, Director of Women’s Sport, Reebok and Nancy Snyderman, MD, NBC News Chief Medical Editor. These speakers, together with media, research scientists, global cancer league managers, corporate executives and guests from around the world, honored these courageous women who overcame breast cancer, as well as geographic and cultural barriers, to publicly join together in solidarity and hope. To help put a human face on the breast cancer cause, all of the breast cancer survivors stood and announced their years of survivorship, which totaled more than 300 years, and Zenia Celis of El Salvador shared her personal story.

Celebrating Worldwide Survivors

The survivors came from nearly 50 countries around the globe to participate in this special event: Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, UK and Venezuela, as well as a number of survivors from the US.

Each breast cancer survivor was nominated by her local Avon office to participate as part of the local Avon Walk Around the World for Breast Cancer activities. Launched in 2005, this series of events, including walks, runs, concerts, conferences, workshops and more, has mobilized more than 1,200,000 people in the US and worldwide and raised more than US$122million dollars. Each woman was selected for her courage, determination and dedication to the cause, as well as her willingness to take a public stand on the issue of breast cancer.

”On behalf of the Avon Foundation, I am proud to honor these inspirational women who have come together from across the world to unite in the fight against breast cancer,” stated Andrea Jung. “At Avon we are committed to breaking barriers to breast cancer treatment, whether the barriers are medical, financial, social, cultural or even geographic. Thanks to these breast cancer survivors and hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, the Avon Walk Around the World for Breast Cancer has raised significant funds for research and access to care for all.”

Over $7 million for New Prevention Research Initiative

The Avon Foundation also announced the funding recipients of the unique $7million Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Prevention Research Initiative, which Jung first presented at The Avon Global Summit for a Better Tomorrow at the United Nations in March 2007. Lack of adequate access to early detection continues to be a worldwide issue, while breast cancer continues to be the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women, and this year it is estimated that there will be 1.2 million new diagnoses. Men can get breast cancer, too.

The Avon Foundation challenged researchers to improve the arsenal of tools for early detection and prevention by initially offering $5 million in grants for the development of new screening tests to detect the earliest changes in the breast prior to developing breast cancer, thereby increasing the opportunity for survival, as well as identifying those at the highest risk. Thanks to the submission of so many high quality proposals, the funding amount was increased from the initial estimate of $5 million to over $7 million, and twelve grants have been awarded to organizations to support this novel lifesaving research [see details below].

New Reebok Sponsorship Initiatives

The Global Breast Cancer Survivors Day Celebration was sponsored by Reebok International. Marcy Schwam, Director of Women’s Sport announced that in 2008 Reebok International will expand the current support of the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in the US to encompass a new global collection of Pink Ribbon footwear and apparel, as well as a global sponsorship of the Walk Around the World for Breast Cancer series.

”Reebok’s global sponsorship of the Avon Walk signifies our strong commitment to women around the world and the passions that move and inspire them,” said Schwam. “Wearing Reebok’s new Pink Ribbon footwear, apparel and accessories will enable women to demonstrate their support for breast cancer awareness from head to toe.”

Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade Programs and Impact

The Avon Foundation Walk Around the World for Breast Cancer luncheon was the first in a series Avon Foundation events in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Other events include the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer New York on October 6-7, the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer Charlotte on October 20-21, and the annual Avon Foundation Awards Celebration to be held in New York City on October 30.

The Avon Breast Cancer Crusade has supported programs in more than 50 countries since it was created in 1992, and by the end of 2007 over US$500 million will be raised and awarded worldwide for advancing access to care and finding a cure for breast cancer, with a focus on the medically underserved. Funding supports five areas: awareness and education; screening and diagnosis; access to treatment; support services; and scientific research. Beneficiaries range from leading cancer centers to community-based non-profit breast health programs, which together form a powerful international network of research, medical, social service and community-based organizations focused on defeating breast cancer and ensuring access to care. In addition, the Avon Foundation supports the domestic violence cause through its Speak Out Against Domestic Violence program, as well as emergency and disaster relief.

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Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Prevention Research Initiative - Grants Awarded:

• A&G Pharmaceutical in Columbia, MD: $870,000 to validate GP88 levels in blood as a new test for monitoring population for early detection of breast cancer and monitoring for recurrence.

• Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation in Pacific Palisades: $1,200,000 to develop a novel device, “Breast Fluid Band-Aid Test” that will monitor breast fluid for changes that will identify women at risk of breast cancer. The project will be a collaboration between the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, the Million Women Screening Study in China. Dr. John Wan of WHPM, Inc., will manufacture the new device, and Dr. Love will work with collaborators at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and University of California San Francisco.

• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle): $980,000 for a collaborative project with the University of Washington and Invitrogen, Inc. to validate an autoantibody signature in serum for breast cancer detection.

• George Mason University (Manassas, VA): $600,000 to validate phosphopeptide biomarkers for breast cancer detection.

• Georgetown University (Washington, DC): $400,000 to improve the diagnostic power of ductal lavage for early detection of breast cancer by assessing multiple markers in one specimen.

• Indiana University (Indianapolis): $350,000 to develop a novel blood test to measure telomere dysfunction as a marker for breast cancer detection.

• Northwestern University in Chicago and Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore): $980,000 to collaborate on a project to determine if epi-genetic events, gene methylation, and estradiol levels in random fine-needle aspiration samples can serve as markers of risk of future breast cancer.

• University of California at San Francisco: $1,000,000 to validate a panel of biomarkers in tissue to predict which early stage breast cancer will progress to malignant breast cancer and develop a blood-based test for population screening of healthy women.

• University of California at San Francisco: $490,000 to determine whether virus transcripts in breast fluid serve as a marker for risk of breast cancer.

• University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (Bastrop, TX): $174,000 to develop a new assay for measuring HERV-K viral titers in blood and validate whether HERV-K levels can serve as a new test for the early detection of breast cancer.

• University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston: $260,000 to validate the specificity and sensitivity of a panel of biomarkers in saliva that are present only during invasive breast cancer.

• University of Michigan in Ann Arbor: $283,000 to validate whether EZH2 is a marker predictive of an early stage breast cancer which will progress to malignant breast cancer.