“As many of you know, I am a cancer survivor — 13 years well,” started Fran 
Drescher in her remarks during Friday evening’s annual Honoring the Promise Gala to benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation at the Kennedy Center.
“It took me two years and many doctors to get a proper diagnosis with uterine cancer. I got in the 
stirrups more times than Roy Rogers!”
Going off-script to give the most humorous, and yet heartwarming, of the evening’s speeches, Dresher was in the company of such cancer advocates as Dorothy Hamill, Josh Morgan, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, 
Ray LaHood and the Honorable Spencer Abraham.
“I feel like I got famous, and I got cancer, and I lived to talk about it,” Drescher finished. “Bad things happen to good people, nobody leaves this planet unscathed, but turning pain into purpose is extremely healing and helps to make sense out of the senseless… I can honestly say that there have been many silver linings. I am better for it, and sometimes the best gifts come 
in the ugliest packages.”
Between remarks and performances, the evening served as tribute as well to the scientific and medical acumen of Dr. Olufunmilayo Olopade, the global leadership of the Caterpillar Foundation, and the lifetime achievements of Victoria and the late Senator Edward Kennedy before concluding with a rousing mini-concert by Kool and the Gang.
*All images credit Michael Woestehoff, The Ellsworth Agency
