October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. My grandmother had breast cancer. She was a survivor — she had it in the mid-to-late 1990′s, had a masectomy, some chemotherapy and was “good to go”, for lack of a better term, by the time I turned sixteen. It’s funny, but I don’t remember a lot of the details surrounding her cancer. I don’t know if it was done deliberately or not, but my grandmother’s breast cancer was pretty much kept from me by my mother, grandmother and grandfather. They just didn’t talk about it, and if they did, they were vague, using terms like “medical therapy” or “doctor’s appointments” or “minor surgery”, when in reality my grandmother had cancer, and she lost a breast to it.
In any case, Breast Cancer Awareness is important, and even more so in October, when companies and organizations all over the world increase their efforts to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research.
Cyro-Cell, a company that specializes in the collection and storage of the stem cells found in menstrual blood, has partnered with the National Institutes of Healthy to explore the idea of using menstrual stem cells to treat breast cancer. The stem cells found in menstrual blood are rich in the components that make stem cells so precious in the first place. Plenty of research and development is currently being done on menstrual blood stem cells, and it’s the hope that they may eventually be used for the treatment of breast cancer, as well as other cancers and medical conditions.
In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Cyro-Cell is donating portions of select purchases to the Susan B. Komen Foundation. $50 from every purchase of the “Protect Baby, Protect Mom” service and $25 from every purchase of the “C’elle Menstrual Stem Cell” service will be given to the foundation.
You can learn more at C’Elle Breast Cancer Donation and Cyro-Cell Breast Cancer Donation.
