We did this to change thousands: A breast cancer survivor

During her treatment for breast cancer, Kim Carlos, 36, ate lunch once a week at the Nordstrom department store in Kansas City, Missouri, with three other young women with breast cancer. They wrote a book based on their discussions, "Nordie's at Noon," and published it themselves. Their grass-roots marketing was so successful that Da Capo Press bought the book and is redistributing it.

Kim's work brought her so many requests for speaking and advocacy work that she decided to leave her position at a law firm in Kansas City to dedicate herself to motivational speaking and issues-oriented public relations.

"We didn’t go through this to change one life, we did this to change thousands," she said.

Advice: Share your survival stories, your pain and your joy, with your support group of friends, like Kim.

Read another breast cancer survivor story, or read the source article by Marci Alboher in the Oct. 25 issue of the New York Times.

I was telling everyone to "feel their boobies": a breast cancer survivor

Leigh Hurst, 37, said she never intended to start a business when her cancer was diagnosed in 2004. She just wanted to spread the word among her friends and other young women that they needed to be serious about breast self-examination. "Basically, I was telling everyone I met to 'feel their boobies,' and when I walked with a group of friends in the Avon breast cancer walk in New York, I set up a one-page web site, put 'Feel your Boobies' on our T-shirts and printed an extra hundred to sell," she said. She sold all the T-shirts within minutes, and donated the proceeds to Komen for the Cure.

Her group was filmed by the Today TV show, and when she returned home to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, she started filling orders that were coming in through the web site.

After much thought, she decided her company should be a nonprofit, to raise awareness and encourage breast self-exams. She put her parents to work in her house, filling orders and handling customer service, and quit her job.

Advice: Find a way to raise others' awareness to prevent them from getting your disease, and help them detect it early, like Leigh.

Read another breast cancer survivor story, or read more from the source article by Marci Alboher in the Oct. 25 issue of the New York Times.

She was well enough to start making plans again: A cancer survivor and entrepreneur

Ms. Banu Ozden is a computer scientist whose cancer was diagnosed in 2001. She said from the time she started dealing with the disease, she wanted to design a system that would make it easier for patients to keep track of their medical costs and also help them find errors in billing and reimbursement records.

In 2005, when teaching computer science at the University of Southern California, she was told that she again had cancer and that this time the disease had spread.

She took a leave of absence from her job and moved to New York so she could be treated at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Within a month of her diagnosis, she was feeling well enough to start making plans again.

Once again in the morass of medical bills, she knew she wanted to proceed with her company. She started Smart Medical Consumer with her own funds and investments from friends and family.

Advice: See if you can help those struggling with a disease you have learned how to face, as Banu is doing.

Read one of our cancer survivor entrepreneur stories, or read more from the NY Times article on October 25 by Marci Alboher.

It’s just middle-aged white guys making them, not the customer: Compression sleeves for lymphedema

Rachel Troxell, 37, learned she had breast cancer three years ago. After going through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, she said the hardest part was learning that she had lymphedema, a condition that affects a sizable number of breast cancer survivors and cause their limbs to swell with fluid. "With the cancer, there was a clear path to follow, and I knew there was an end to it," she said. "With lymphedema, you are stuck with it, and it affects the quality of your life."

Her treatment for lymphedema required her to wear a compression sleeve constantly, leading to questions from everyone she encountered. Rachel, a videographer and graphic designer, said she became consumed with finding an alternative to the drab, unsightly and uncomfortable sleeve.

"I called some companies that made the ugly garment, asking if there were other options, and they all said no," she said. "It is just middle-aged white guys making them, and they aren’t the customer."

She connected with Kristin Dudley, who was then a 22-year=old fashion student at Drexel University in Philadelphia. They designed a more fashionable and comfortable compression sleeve. Kristin was excited about it because her own grandmother, who had lymphedema, had refused to wear her own compression sleeves.

Rachel and Kristin won third place for the idea in a business plan contest sponsored by Drexel University. They are now partners in Lymphedivas, since starting the company last year.

Their business owes its inspiration to the brush with breast cancer.

Survival rates have increased markedly, so there are now 2.3 million breast cancer survivors in the U.S., according to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, one of the largest breast cancer research and advocacy organizations. Many survivors are committed to doing something to ease the ordeal of others or to solve a particular problem they encountered in their own treatment.

Advice to those with a serious health condition: Perhaps, like Rachel, you can find innovative ways to help others who suffer from the same health condition you do.

Read another of our entrepreneur stories, or read Marci Alboher's source story in today’s New York Times.