Has breast cancer impacted you, your family or your friends? If the answer is “Yes”, then you are in the MAJORITY of people whose lives have been turned upside down by this disease. Mine was, just this year.
This is my heartfelt request for your help. You can quickly reduce women’s suffering from breast cancer around the globe. One of our interviewees has cracked the code on affordable testing to detect breast cancer early, when treatment can be up to 90% successful! November 29th was Giving Tuesday. But we think extending it to Giving _____ (fill in the blank what works for your life) allows our generous followers to make a real impact. Read on to find out that just $50 can save one woman’s life and spare her family the aguish of her loss. You already know that finding breast cancer early means likely life; finding it late means likely death. This is tragic and affects every one of us. But how do we find it early reliably, worldwide? Watch and read on. 
Rob Kramarz:
Hi, this is Robert Steven Kramarz, executive director of Intelliversity, and this is your Vision Master podcast. And today, I would like to introduce you to Bill Whittmeyer and Mona Jhaveri because of the very special program that they’re involved in. As you’re probably aware, Intelliversity has been backing a project called The Jericho Center of Medical Diplomacy, designed to use medicine to bridge the gaps between warring cultures in various parts of the world. We’re particularly interested in the Middle East.
And one of the ways, probably the premier way that we’re doing this right now, is solving the problem of breast cancer in countries where traditional cultures prevail, and women are not getting screened. And because they’re not getting screened, they’re dying in very large numbers.
By our calculation, I think you’ll confirm this, Bill, 500,000 women are dying annually unnecessarily in traditional cultures because they just don’t get screened for breast cancer. And this matters because we delay dealing with this every year; another 500,000 women, the matriarchs, our sisters, and our mothers are lost to us forever. We can never get them back. We wait two years; that’s a million families that are fractured. And this does not even include the suffering that goes with this disease, even if the woman survives.
Because suffering is private, the celebration is public. People don’t talk. We don’t hear about it. You can make a difference in saving 500,000 women every year simply through the method that Bill’s company has developed and Mona is, which you’ll find out in a moment, backing. So Bill, quickly, what will $50 get if given right now? And why is it important?
Bill Whittmeyer:
We’re conducting clinical trials to validate a technology called breath analysis to identify women who have breast cancer. The trial costs $50 per patient in the hospital and consumable fees for each woman we bring into the test. So for every woman that comes in, we test that. We’re trying to do a minimum of 1,300 women to establish that this has the same sensitivity and specificity as a mammogram, such that a painless, non-invasive means is available to screen women for breast cancer.
Rob Kramarz:
So this is what your company Pulmostics is doing, and that’s why we’re backing you because this is something that matters right now, that once this clinical trial is over in Mexico, which is months or a year or so away, then we can begin right away in screening massive numbers of families and women for breast cancer right away, very inexpensively without any of the pain or discomfort of a mammogram.
Bill Whittmeyer:
You’re correct. One of the biggest problems is that small, poorer countries can’t afford imaging infrastructure. And we do is by using breath, which is lower cost, faster, and distributable; we allow them to use their imaging infrastructure for much more effective use, which is to identify the tumor rather than screen for it.
Rob Kramarz:
So we need your help.
Bill Whittmeyer:
And that’s the real goal.
Rob Kramarz:
We need your help right now to get this clinical trial fully populated. We need 1,350 women at $50 each. Please help. Now, Mona is in charge of a program; she created a program called Music Beats Cancer. And she stepped in to help Pulmostics raise these funds, too. And Music Beats Cancer awarded Pulmostics first place in the Battle of the Biotechs.
Mona Jhaveri:
That’s right.
Rob Kramarz:
Which was a $10,000 start for this process.
Mona Jhaveri:
Right. So Music Beats Cancer is a charity, and we exclusively support startups like Pulmostics that are working on solutions for cancer. And what we do is we operate very much like a Kickstarter or GoFundMe. We help companies create campaigns on our platform where they can raise a round of non-diluted funds or passion capital, but we also allow the public to give their dollar to a campaign that they find compelling.
Rob Kramarz:
So why do you find this compelling, Mona? This particular-
Mona Jhaveri:
Yeah. What Pulmostics is doing is hugely compelling because of what Bill said. Some too many women need to be screened. And the cost of that is enormous. It’s beyond the cost of lives. It’s the cost of family, the cost of community, and the cost of productivity. And the grief and the spiritual impacts and financial impacts and all of that is. I think the cancer burden is huge, and innovations like what Pulmostics is working on can make a huge difference. And if only there were a way to capture that in a bottle, so to speak, so that people understood how important that next $50 donation is. Words can’t put enough emphasis.
Rob Kramarz:
Thank you, Mona, for everything you’ve done for Pulmostics and women with breast cancer. So to help out right now, go to Music Beats Cancer to the campaign for Pulmostics. Check it out. In the program screen and campaign screen, look for Pulmostics. There’s a two-minute video there covering a little more than we just talked about. And what’s most important is to take a moment and donate $50 for each woman you want to help. Every woman counts right now.
Because as soon as we’re finished with the clinical trials, which is next year, Pulmostic’s breath screening can go to the public beginning in Mexico, and then as time goes on, the rest of the world. This matters. Your help matters. I have a friend in surgery this morning with stage three breast cancer. She didn’t get screened and didn’t have the money. Now, her chances are very low. This morning, she’s in surgery. I don’t want this to happen anymore. Please help.
Thank you for listening. This is Robert Steven Kramarz, your Vision Master podcast, sponsored by Intelliversity. I hope to see you soon. So that’s the way it will be. Thank you very much.