Celebrating Ginny Knackmuhs

It is with great sadness that we share the news that Ginny Knackmuhs, one of our MBC Alliance founding members, passed away on August 15th. Ginny was surrounded by her family and went peacefully. Alliance member Katherine O’Brien of the MBC Network – Ginny’s home institution – wrote about Ginny here.

Ginny was incisive, asking difficult questions to ensure that the Alliance was founded and moved forward with a clear focus on people living with MBC. Her active participation in meetings in December 2013 and March 2014 helped shape our comprehensive Landscape Analysis report that has informed all of the projects of the Alliance.

Ginny was a ‘roll up your sleeves and get to work’ advocate, contributing to every discussion. Frequently listening quietly at the beginning, she would chime in with wise points and counterpoints for us to consider after she digested the discussion. Ginny was actively involved in developing the Alliance’s new clinical trials search tool, Metastatic Trial Search, serving as the MBCN liaison to the Metastatic Trial Search project. She participated actively in the group discussions that led to the design of MTS and its subsequent inclusion on the MBCN site.

As a dedicated member of the Information Task Force, Ginny was instrumental in launching the Dandelion Project. Her fierce advocacy, unwillingness to take ‘no’ for an answer, and commitment to MBC have impacted the metastatic breast cancer community tremendously. Her efforts have touched many hundreds of lives and will do so far into the future. Ginny’s legacy of advocacy and activism will continue to challenge the status quo and make a difference in the lives of those facing metastatic breast cancer.