By Ed Karvoski Jr., Contributing Writer
Southborough – Two-time breast cancer survivor Dru Lindgren of Southborough is committed to finding what causes the disease. She serves as assistant executive director of the Find the Cause Breast Cancer Foundation, formerly known as Art beCAUSE. While the name recently changed, its mission continues to fund scientific research on the environmental causes of breast cancer and educate the public on prevention.
The nonprofit organization based in Framingham was co-founded 17 years ago by Eleanor Anbinder and Joyce Crieger, who formerly owned an art gallery. A portion of the gallery sales were donated to Art beCAUSE. The organization changed its name this past July to Find the Cause. Lindgren became aware of the organization soon after her second diagnosis.
“I knew the right direction for me was everything that Ellie and the scientists they funded were doing,” she said. “I wanted to be part of helping to create a safer world for my children.”
Lindgren was diagnosed with breast cancer when she went for her routine mammogram in 2009. She was treated with lumpectomy and radiation. Her 2011 mammogram resulted with a second breast cancer diagnosis. She underwent a mastectomy.
The diagnoses were a surprise to Lindgren because she had no family history of breast cancer. That common occurrence was the first lesson she learned while attending the organization’s fundraising gala.
“The most impactful statement I heard the first time I went to an Art beCAUSE event was that 90 percent of all people diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history,” she relayed. “You hear that statistic a lot. Now that I’m out there and advocating, it’s the first question I ask and most of the time the answer is no family history.”
After treatment, Lindgren became involved with the organization and educated herself on the environmental causes of breast cancer. She joined the organization’s board of directors in 2014 and chaired its gala in 2015. She began as assistant executive director in 2016.
“I did everything I could do under my control to figure out how to best become healthy by what I put in and on my body,” she explained.
Lindgren is also sharing lessons learned with her husband and their three children.
“I do everything in my power to have the same kind of impact on their bodies,” she said. “They’ve been wonderfully receptive considering that I’ve completely changed the way they eat and all the products we use in our house. They get the message. I have two children that are out of the house now, so they do their own shopping and complain how expensive organic is. They’re very aware of the impact that food has on them. Now, my kids are educating their friends.”
Find the Cause held a breakfast Oct. 3 at the Boston Marriott Newton. Lindgren appreciates the message of its guest speaker, environmental activist Erin Brockovich.
Lindgren noted, “Erin said that we can’t find a cure until we know the cause.”
For more information, visit findthecausebcf.org and on Facebook at facebook.com/findthecausebcf.