WASHINGTON – Citing her career-long support in the fight against breast cancer, the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation honored Sen. Olympia Snowe with the 2001 Connie Mack Award for Outstanding Achievement on Tuesday.

The award, presented only once during the foundation’s 20-year history, is reserved for a public servant who has demonstrated a commitment to enhancing breast cancer awareness.

The Republican senator from Maine was singled out for her sustained leadership in rallying bipartisan congressional support for increased research, education, screening and treatment.

“To have the recognition and support of an organization at the vanguard of the fight against breast cancer means more to me than I can say,” Snowe said in a prepared speech after accepting the honor at a morning luncheon held at Washington’s Grand Hyatt Hotel. “I look forward to the day when there are no more Connie Mack Achievement Awards because there is no longer the scourge of breast cancer.”

The foundation, which sponsors the annual Race for the Cure, also gave other awards to actor Rob Lowe and Rep. Ken Bentsen, D-Texas.

The Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and focused its annual Mission Conference in Washington on “Reaching for the Cure … Innovations in Quality Health Care.”

The event brought together advocates, policy-makers, medical professionals and volunteers of the Komen Foundation.