Susan G. Komen for the Cure's Impact Awards luncheon honors leaders in the fight against breast cancer

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Impact Awards luncheon Tuesday honored more than a dozen organizations and individuals who've made an impact on Houston's continuing fight against breast cancer.

KPRC's resident hunky meteorologist, Khambrel Marshall, hosted the affair, which honored The Harris Country Hospital District — the recent recipient of a $15 million donation from the Lester and Sue Smith Foundation, Episcopal High School and others for their contributions. Individuals were also honored, including Janet Eli, who is fighting stage-four breast cancer and was honored with the Ambassador Award for her tradition of forgoing a birthday party to instead host a tennis invitational benefiting cancer research.

The event, which drew more than 400, also celebrated the $3.27 million that Komen for the Cure Houston pledged this year to local organizations, for the first time funding efforts in all six Houston-area county it serves.

One of Susan G. Komen Houston's largest recipients, The Rose, received $500,000 this year to continue its mission of providing mobile mammograms to women in need. Development director Carol Wright tells us that the entirety of the grant will go toward preventative screenings. The Rose is one of the only organizations that is able to take prevention past mammograms, also assisting women in paying for ultrasounds and biopsies and providing childcare during hospital stays.

Wright says that the Houston organizations devoted to fighting breast cancer and funded by Komen for the Cure are a community devoted to a common cause. "The organizations figure out what they're best at, and we all cross-refer," she tells CultureMap.

Susan G. Komen began in 1982 with a meager $28,000 grant, and has to date devoted $1.9 billion to cancer research. To find out how you can get involved in Race for the Cure of any of Komen's other initiatives, visit their website here.