In her own words, Mary Alfrey did what she did for Susan G. Komen Ozark because "I have the benefit of seeing firsthand how the work we do is returned to our local community.
"It is inspiring," Alfrey, the group's executive director, wrote in an Executive Summary that appeared in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Profiles section April 19, "because the need is still great, and I know that so many people are depending on us to continue to provide these services. We are saving lives, and we are also keenly aware that our mission is not fulfilled until we find a cure."
The cure didn't come in time for Alfrey, who died Tuesday morning. Her death came just two days after the 2015 Race for the Cure, held Saturday at Pinnacle Hills Promenade in Rogers. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2013, less than six months after she joined Komen Ozark.
Kari Nikolish, president of the Komen Ozark Board, said she was with Alfrey during the early doctors' appointments after her cancer was found by mammogram. It was, she said, an aggressive cancer, but Alfrey never lost hope. On April 8, after illness during the winter, she found out the cancer had spread.
"She had been so happy to be back at work, embracing her job and even more energized for the mission she was on because she had experienced firsthand what we do every day," Nikolish said. Since joining the nonprofit as executive director, Alfrey had seen the organization serve 10,000 people each year in a 10-county service area through education programs, navigation services, screening and diagnostic testing and treatment support, awarding grants to other nonprofit groups working with cancer patients.
For 2015-16, those grants totaled $725,000, of which $103,267 went to the Community Clinic for its "We Are Aware" program for low-income patients. Tyler Clark, community development director for the Community Clinic and part of the Komen race operations committee, also remembered Alfrey's passion and never-ending optimism and said the team approach she fostered means her work will continue.
"She was a force of nature," he said. "And her loss brings mortality to the forefront of people's minds, obviously. We have to join together, those who survive and those who support. Her legacy and her memory will be that she did fight and made people's lives better.
"Our hearts are heavy, but all of the grant recipients will work together and support each other."
Nikolish said she'd thought often over the weeks since Alfrey's terminal diagnosis "how ironic she came to us and just months after she started was diagnosed with breast cancer. And just after two years with us, she passed away from breast cancer. Part of her legacy is going to be the passion that she has reinstilled in all of us -- not just in Northwest Arkansas but in all the affiliates of Komen. It re-energizes us to say this isn't good enough. This sweet, kind woman should have had a different outcome. We're so close to finding a cure or at least a treatment that would prevent people from dying."
Alfrey is survived by two daughters, Jennifer DenHartog and her husband, Kyle, and Kayla Alfrey. Funeral services are pending with Nelson-Berna Funeral Home in Fayetteville. Visitation is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.
NW News on 04/29/2015