Growing up in Glencoe, Lisa Gollob and her younger brother David had a special childhood playing tennis on the National Junior Circuit. Their parents were supportive, particularly their mother Carol, who often went above and beyond to ensure her children had the best possible tennis experience. Carol Gollob, who had a master's in social work, was an active parent, traveling with Lisa and David, attending numerous matches, and becoming well-known and well-liked by kids, coaches, and pros along the way.
"One time I was playing tennis against a girl and she didn't have an extra shirt," Lisa Gollob (now Lisa Gollob Finke) remembers, "It was August, and 102 degrees, and we'd all been out there for three hours. She didn't have any more sets of clothes to change into, and her shirt was soaked. So my mom went into the locker room, took her shirt off, just zipped up her wind-breaker, and gave her shirt to my competitor. When David and I were growing up, even if kids knew we weren't around, they'd call to talk to her. That's the kind of person she was."
Carol Gollob spent a lot of time on the road with Lisa and David, traveling throughout the country for tournaments, often acting as the parent responsible for several of her children's tennis mates. Lisa Finke remembers her mother often running back and forth between her matches, and those of her brother and their friends, making sure everyone was showered, had eaten properly and were on time with the clothes they needed.
"She was the cheering section for everyone," Finke, now 33, recalls. "She was always calm watching us, but both David and I still remember the yelp she made when we'd win a big match."
Although three years apart, Finke and her brother both went on to Yale, becoming captains of the women's and men's tennis teams. In 1985, when Finke was a junior in college, the Gollob's idyllic family life was altered by the news that Carol had developed breast cancer.
"David and I were still kind of in our own worlds," Finke says. "My mother had ten months of chemotherapy, and the cancer was gone. We figured the worst was behind us."
But in the fall of 1990 as Finke was entering her first year at Northwestern's Kellogg business school in Evanston, she got the news that her mother's cancer had returned.
"We were all shell-shocked," Finke says. "We had slapped each other on the back and said, 'Let's get on with living,' and BAM! We were back facing it. Our mom was young and healthy, she and my dad had taken up golf. We were planning to travel. They were looking forward to retirement. When the cancer returned, we went into crisis mode. My family and I kept asking, 'What do we do now? What are our options? How can we make Mom feel better?'"
On receiving the news, David Gollob returned from France, where he'd been playing professional tennis, taking a job with a Chicago bank to be nearby.
The family was surprised to learn that treatments hadn't changed or progressed much in the five years since Carol was first diagnosed.
"The doctors were saying, 'Well we can't use this drug because she's already tried it. We can't use that treatment since she's had it before,'" Finke continues. "We wanted to know, 'Why isn't there a cure? Shouldn't there be new drugs? Why aren't the doctors any more advanced?"
"My father was up all night on CompuServe researching new alternatives for my mom. My brother and I kept saying to each other, 'Something more should be done,'" Finke explains.
So Finke and her brother, along with her soon-to-be fiancé Tom Finke and several friends from Kellogg, took action. They started a charity tennis clinic to raise money for breast cancer research, in hopes of one day helping to find a cure.
"We had known about breast cancer, but we certainly weren't involved in advocacy up until that point," Finke says. "We'd never had a passion for a cause, but there didn't seem to be any good options for my mom. All the treatments were still debilitating and unpleasant."
Finke turned to her friends in the tennis profession for help - many of whom had been kids Carol supported or coaches whose respect she had earned.
"I called up a bunch of tennis pros in the area," Finke remembers, "and I said, 'What do you think about teaching a clinic for people, and at the same time raising money for breast cancer?' Most of them knew my mother, and they said, 'Sign me up. Just tell me what I have to do and where I have to be.' Even those who didn't know her felt it was a great cause - so many families are affected by breast cancer."
The first clinic drew 50 pros, nearly 200 participants aged 25-45, and multiple corporate sponsors. The success of the clinic led to it becoming an annual event, causing Finke and her partners to create the non-profit Carol Gollob Foundation for Breast Cancer Research.
For one night each May in Chicago, tennis enthusiasts - from beginners to advanced players - get together to engage in tennis drills, working on all aspects of their game, with close pro supervision and numerous opportunities for critiquing and feedback. They also participate in a silent auction, listen to researchers speak about the latest breakthroughs in breast cancer treatments, and partake in food and beverages provided by sponsors at the evening's conclusion. Sponsors have included William Blair and Company, Kraft, and Computer Discount Warehouse. At a ticket price of $65 per person, they've achieved their goal of netting $20-25,000 for each event, raising close to $200,000 in seven years.
"In 1993 we did a second clinic, and since my mother was still alive, we decided to start a foundation," Finke, whose mother finally succumbed to the disease three years after her final re-diagnosis, says. "This was a way we were beginning to reach more people. The foundation's mission statement is to increase awareness of the rising incidence of breast cancer, and to raise funds to benefit breast cancer research."
Carol Gollob passed away a week before Finke's wedding, in October of 1993, at age 55. Finke had promised her mother she would not postpone it, although she says, "It was very stressful, and very sad not to have her at the wedding."
The American Cancer Society estimates that over 175,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998, close to 9,000 of them in Illinois. The money raised by The Carol Gollob Foundation goes to three doctors researching aspects of breast cancer prevention or cure such as cataloguing breast tumors for analysis, and researching estrogen levels and bone-marrow transplants. These doctors are affiliated with Evanston Hospital, Northwestern Medical School Hospital, and the University of Chicago Hospital.
"We (the board of the foundation) want the money to go directly to people we think can use it most," says Finke. "The response of the doctors that we've donated the money to has been truly rewarding for us. When you think of finding a cure, you imagine it will take millions and millions of dollars. So to split up $25,000 three ways each year doesn't seem like a lot. But the doctors have been so excited and thankful about the money. Even though the tennis clinic's not a $500,000 event, we're still making a difference."
Finke never ceases to be overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the pros and participants of the clinic.
"People come up to us," she says, "and they're so happy to be a part of it. They're glad they came. We want to raise awareness, and it's a bonus that the people enjoy participating. And the pros are glad to be there too. Everyone's learning about breast cancer and doing something that's good for the community, yet it's not a downer. We've even had people call and say, 'How can we get more involved?'"
The Board of Directors for the foundation now has 20 volunteers who help organize the tennis clinic each year.
"The summer before my mom died, my future mother-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer," Finke says. "And three weeks before this year's tennis clinic, one of our board members was diagnosed with breast cancer. Once again we were hit with how prevalent it is. Every time I hear of another person being diagnosed, it makes me mad. We shouldn't still be doing this. There should be a cure already."
When Finke graduated from Kellogg in 1993, she decided to stay in Chicago and head up strategic planning for her family's manufacturing company. David Gollob recently moved to San Francisco for a position in business development with a high-tech company. Finke has two children, aged two and a half, and four months.
"One of the things that's so devastating about breast cancer is that it affects so many women at a young age," says Finke. "Now that I have children of my own, I feel the loss of my mom even more on a daily basis, and I can imagine what it's like for others who lose someone young. My mom was my best girlfriend, and it's so hard not to have her around. She was a really good listener. She was never critical. Just knew how to listen and let you work things out."
Still frustrated by the lack of progress in curing breast cancer, Finke hopes for the future.
"I still think there are far too many women dying of breast cancer," Finke says. "The biggest thing is to help find a cure and then we (the foundation) can move on to different causes and say, 'We've made a difference, we've helped somebody not suffer. My mother suffered terribly. She suffered mentally and physically, and it shouldn't be. Awareness of breast cancer has increased, and now we need to do something about it. It's one thing to be aware. It's another to have a cure."
The Carol Gollob Foundation can be reached at 847-835-9426.