Amy Ruley faced many tough opponents in her 29 years pacing the sideline as the head women’s basketball coach for North Dakota State. Her toughest opponent, however, wasn’t another basketball team. It was cancer. In 2001, Ruley was diagnosed with breast cancer. Today, she’s a cancer survivor and advocate for raising awareness in the fight against a disease that, according to the American Cancer Society, claimed the lives of over 40,000 women last year.

 

“I think when you talk about cancer there are probably very few people that in their immediate family, and if not immediate extended circle, that haven’t been affected by it,” said Ruley, now an Associate Athletic Director for NDSU. With the exception of skin cancers, breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women. One in eight women will develop invasive breast cancer at some point in their lifetime. That pervasiveness underscores the necessity of raising awareness and advancing research towards a cure.

 

On Saturday the Bison women host Southern Utah in their annual “Pink Zone” game to do just that. The Pink Zone initiative was started by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association in 2007 to promote breast cancer awareness on the court and across college campuses nationwide. “Having gone through it personally makes it a little more significant. It’s a really important initiative,” said Ruley. Last year, the WBCA raised not only awareness, but over $1.3 million for breast cancer research through the Pink Zone games.

 

Ruley echoes the same message as she did shortly after her diagnosis. In a 2001 interview with, “It’s Happening At State,” Ruley stressed the importance of preventive measures for early detection. “The responsibility that I feel is to share with other women the importance of a self-breast examination, followed by a mammogram,” said Ruley in the nearly decade old interview.

 

Those efforts paid immediate dividends. Ruley later learned that several women went in for mammograms after hearing of her situation and found they too had lumps. “It’s a pretty good example that being public and talking about it can be a good thing.” Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women behind only lung cancer. On Monday, Ruley addressed the women’s athletic group at Minnesota State University Moorhead. “They too are spending this month heightening awareness and doing some fundraising,” said Ruley.

 

The Pink Zone game takes that concept of public awareness and expands on it. “It’s something the coaches association felt they could do to make an impact. They’ve been doing the think pink concept and take the month of February to talk about cancer, particularly breast cancer,” explained Ruley. Ruley pointed out that while predominantly occurring in women, men are not immune. Nearly 1,600 men were diagnosed with breast cancer last year. An estimated 500 men died from it. 

 

Ruley credits a receptive Fargo-Moorhead community in raising awareness and taking the fight to not only breast cancer, but all cancer. “When you look across the F-M community, there’s a lot of involvement and support for research and dollars that go towards that fight against cancer. You see it at various levels, from elementary schools to professional organizations like the Roger Maris (golf) event. We do a lot in our community to promote awareness and work towards a cure.”