Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was widely hailed during her lifetime for her work on gender equality and equal rights under the law, but after her death we learned that she also had a connection to testicular cancer, the disease we work to raise awareness of every day on the Ball Report.

While she was studying at Harvard Law School in the late 1950s, Ginsburg’s husband was also enrolled in the school. But in 1958, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, and the treatments of that era were more primitive, harder on the body and more time-consuming. Martin Ginsburg was unable to attend classes, but knew that you don’t get more than one shot at Harvard Law. So while also continuing her own law studies and raising their child, Ruth took all of her husband’s class notes, worked with him on his studies and even typed up his final paper as he was undergoing treatment.

That’s a great lesson about equality and feminism: the true lesson at the heart of it is that we’re all strong and we can all raise each other up to a more fair, just and equitable society, no matter what our gender. Here’s hoping that the Supreme Court continues to pursue those goals after Justice Ginsburg’s passing.

Read more at the Fordham Observer.