Betty Ford Raising Breast Cancer Awareness Past Exhibit … Cancer wherever it strikes the body, also strikes the spirit, and the best doctors in the world can't cure the spirit, only love and understanding can.  — Betty Ford, November 7, 1975 View Gallery Betty Ford's remarks to the American Cancer Society Just weeks after she became First Lady, Betty Ford was diagnosed with breast cancer. On September 26, 1974, doctors discovered a lump in her breast during a routine medical examination. She underwent a …