Morgan Pressel fights breast cancer

Thanks to my friend Lily for bringing my attention to the following story about Morgan Pressel, who is an American professional golfer, currently playing on the LPGA Tour. She is the youngest-ever winner of an LPGA major tournament, and has reached number 4 in the Women’s World Golf Rankings. It is anticipated that Morgan Pressel will be on the United States team which defends the Solheim Cup against Europe’s best professional women golfers later this year at Killeen Castle in Dunsany, Co Meath, Ireland.

Morgan is just 22 years of age but her mother’s death in 2003 of breast cancer has given Pressel a deeper awareness of breast health than most young women. She set up a foundation in memory of her late mother, Kathryn, and her annual Morgan and Friends Golf Tournament has raised over 1.2 million dollars since its creation.

Last year, the foundation purchased the Kathryn Krickstein Pressel Mammovan, which travels the Boca Raton area of Florida providing access to early mammograms. The van is a state-of-the-art, mobile mammography unit to help detect breast cancer while it is still treatable and it is the LPGA star’s intention to purchase more such vans for use around American cities in the coming years.

As her fellow LPGA player and Solheim Cup team-mate Angela Standford put it this week: “Any time you have a young person who gets it and understands the importance of using their talent to help others, that’s pretty cool.”