Episode 28: Cynthia Besteman
“I can with almost 99.9 percent certainty that we’re looking at a malignancy.” Now what do you do? Fight. Survive. Win.
Cynthia Besteman straightforwardly recalls this highly personal moment in her life – when she knew she had breast cancer. She describes feeling all the blood in her body dropping into her stomach. Like she was suspended on a rollercoaster right before it plunges into its steep valleys and twisting turns. Even without a cancer diagnosis, we all know that loss of breath sensation when the news coming to us is not good, and instantly the world changes. Cynthia recounts the long walk home from her doctor’s office and feeling as if the “sky was not as blue.” In her hour of need, she reached out to a dear friend who was also fighting this disease. With great compassion, Cynthia’s friend offered to be her flashlight and guide through the complexities of how to fight, survive and win against a disease that kills 42,000 women and 500 men each year.
And fight is exactly what Cynthia did. She called upon her mom, those women closest in her life and her husband for emotional support. She called upon her life’s experiences in the tough worlds of acting and New York City real estate to formulate an action plan that would save her life and lead her to her true calling. During her own treatment and recovery, she began to create Violets Are Blue – a full range of skincare and body care products designed to address the specific needs of women going through treatment. The line is empathetically formulated with clean ingredients that can be healthily absorbed into the body through the skin.
With her work today, as the Founder and CEO of Violets Are Blue, Cynthia herself has become a flashlight for thousands of women battling for their lives. She eloquently and passionately calls for more education, more technology, more treatments and a cure so that Stage 4 women can stay alive for more than five to 10 years.
As she reminds us with almost startling candor, “There is no Stage 5. Stage 4 is it.” The time for action is now.
