In early 1992 Lorraine Pace was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. When she was diagnosed with the breast cancer Lorraine realized that 20 people she knew-all of whom lived in her West Islip neighborhood south of Montauk Highway also had breast cancer. That is what spurred her very public, relentless crusade to call attention to breast cancer in Suffolk County. Along with her husband John Pace, who did all of the legal work pro-bono, Lorraine founded the West Islip Breast Cancer Coalition for Long Island, Inc.
Lorraine was worried that chemicals dumped into the ground since 1932 was getting into our ground water. With the help and support of Dr. Michael J. Feinstein, Maria Diario, Pat Nichols, Mary Hibbard, and Michael Lo Grande, along with the support of Reverend Thomas Arnao, and the encouragement of Good Samaritan Hospital, Lorraine began to survey the women in her neighborhood about breast cancer and put their responses on a map after 18 months-she and her cadre of volunteers had covered 8,750 homes in her ZIP code. This also spread nationwide and abroad due to the attention of the media. This was the beginning of the Breast Cancer Environmental Movement.
