Meet 2011 Honorary Race Chair

We are honored to introduce Nancy Hinds, RN as 2011 Komen Central Valley's Honorary Race Chair

 The Central Valley Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® is excited to announce Nancy Hinds, RN as this year's Honorary Race Chair at the 13th Annual Komen Central Valley Race for the Cure.  

The Central Valley knows Nancy Hinds as the heart, soul, Founder and CEO of Hinds Hospice.  Many do not know about Nancy’s incredible spirit of service since childhood when she knew her calling was to become a nurse and care for people.

Nancy’s nursing career began as an intensive care nurse at the Cleveland Clinc Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio.  At the age of 23, Hinds embarked on missionary work that took her the West Indies onto Nigeria, West Africa during the Biafran war where she cared for her patients amongst machine guns and soldiers.  It was there she met Dr. Godfrey Hinds, an Irish physician who had already devoted twenty years as a missionary.  They married in Ireland and later with a six week old son in tow, began missionary work in Uganda, East Africa.  Nancy was pregnant with their second child when war broke out in Uganda.  When the bombs came so close that pieces of ceiling were falling on the bed of their 18-month-old son Sean, she left Uganda while Dr. Hinds stayed behind to assist the missionary sisters.  Nancy, son and Dr. Hinds were reunited in Cleveland, Ohio.  This is where there second son Conor was born.  

The Hinds moved back to Ireland then onward to Canada where Dr. Hinds served as the only physician for a 1,100-mile radius.  This is where there third son Patrick was born.  The Hinds decided to return to warmer Northern Ireland.  Unfortunately they found themselves surrounded by the violence of the Irish terrorist bombings.  

Nancy was called back home to Cleveland when learning her mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Upon returning to Ireland, Dr. Hinds was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer for which there was no treatment.  Nancy’s parents came to Ireland to support the family in their time of need.  Dr. Hinds passed away in 1977.  While still in Ireland only after several months, Nancy’s mother passed from complications from her cancer.

After three years on her own in Ireland, Nancy decided to move to Fresno, California to be near her father and brother.  In Fresno, she worked as an oncology nurse at Saint Agnes.  Due to the loss of Dr. Hinds, Nancy felt it was best to spend more time with her sons.  It was then that Nancy decided to establish her first hospice home.  She explains, “I knew that I had something to offer people.  I feel I can relate to people because I have some sense of what they are experiencing,” Today Nancy Hinds has grown Hinds Hospice to include outpatient care in the three central California counties of Fresno, Madera, and Merced.

Hinds Hospice is a recipient of grant funding from Komen Central Valley.  This grant provides financial assistance to help offset the unreimbursed cost of care provided to the uninsured or underinsured terminally ill breast cancer patients who are in need of hospice care.

We are very thankful to Nancy for her support and monumental efforts to promote awareness of breast cancer and to provide aid and comfort to those affected by it.


A message from Nancy Hinds, RN-2011 Honorary Race Chair

I am so excited to be asked to be the Honorary Chair for the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure, Central Valley Affiliate. As a grantee, we have been privileged to know and care for the most inspiring people.  To know we can offer a continuum of care to men and women when treatments have not produced the desired outcome. The quality and meaning of life become so important and we can walk that journey with them. Thank you for giving me a voice in the celebration of these courageous individuals. They are my heroes!  Thank you for the opportunity to give honor to those whose journey we were privileged to share. They are our teachers, and our blessing.