Liz Benditt knows all too well what it’s like to be a cancer patient. She survived four different types of cancer in eight years, beating bouts with melanoma skin cancer, thyroid cancer, basal cell skin cancer and breast cancer.
Benditt’s experiences with cancer treatments led her to a business idea. In 2017, when she was undergoing radiation treatment for breast cancer, Benditt first began thinking about the different types of products cancer patients needed. She had to do a lot of her own research to find the tools that would help her recover, like bra alternatives that wouldn’t rub her skin and aluminum-free deodorant to avoid potential reactions from the radiation.
“I'm spending $200 on deodorant because I can, but you know, lots of women can't do that, or don’t have the time or the money to do it,” she said.
When her skin was damaged from the radiation, she began looking for a lotion that could provide relief, eventually discovering calendula oil, which has been shown to help burn victims.
“I found a super expensive lotion on the internet, I ordered it, paid for overnight shipping, and it was amazing. It made such a difference," she said. "And I kept thinking, ‘How come I'm doing this work?’ How is it that this information isn't centralized?"
Benditt spent the next two years researching and ruminating. She originally planned to focus on helping patients going through radiation treatments and even bought a website domain name, but she eventually decided to focus on general cancer care.
Things begin to align for launching her business in early 2020. A member of the Kansas City Jewish community, Benditt had started a part-time teaching job at the University of Kansas in January and was then laid off from her full-time marketing job at an insurance company in March. Benditt used her extra time to develop a website, the product line and fundraise. Her business, The Balm Box (thebalmbox.com), officially launched in October of 2020, offering curated “cancer care packages.”
Benditt used hard data to build her business model. She surveyed more than 500 people (cancer patients and those who have bought gifts for cancer patients) to get feedback about what products would be most beneficial.
"When you ask cancer patients, ‘What are the things that you wanted for yourself or you wanted to receive as a gift?’ the gifts were all functional," she said.
Those items included lip balm, lotion, ice packs, and fleece blankets. Benditt also asked what the worst gifts they received during treatments were, and people listed gifts like coffee mugs, tote bags and t-shirts with inspirational quotes on them — well-meaning gifts that didn't serve much purpose.
People who had bought gifts for someone fighting cancer said they most often bought flowers and food.
"There's this real disconnect between what people want and need and what they're actually receiving," Benditt said.
People can choose gifts either by treatment (breast surgery, chemotherapy or radiation) or by choosing from different types of care (cancer care, rest and recovery, etc.).
Benditt put a lot of care and thought into selecting items for the boxes that were high quality, with the goal of making the boxes feel unique, special, elegant and functional.
“That's one of the most important elements about boxes — that all the items should feel bespoke and premium and useful, and not just stuff that you could collect on your own,” she said. “No one's gonna pay for a gift package that you could curate yourself by going to Walmart.”
Boxes are tailored to soothe the effects from different treatments. There’s a Soothing Skin and Lips box for those experiencing dry skin from radiation. Boxes for mastectomy and lumpectomy patients include a seat belt barrier, a small pillow that prevents seatbelts from rubbing against chests that are tender from surgery and radiation. Chemo boxes include fleece blankets to stay warm and ginger mints to help with nausea.
Benditt said Balm Box has essentially doubled its business this past year, and had an unexpected accomplishment when a buyer from CVS reached out about the specialty pillows featured on the website. The Balm Box mastectomy and seat belt pillows, which Benditt has manufactured locally, are now sold on CVS.com. Benditt said she hopes to expand into the CVS retail stores.
“I think that people can learn about Balm Box by seeing the package on the shelf. In some ways that's going to be more effective… and so I'm working really, really hard to break into retail with those pillow products,” she said.
If Benditt can get enough retailers to pick up the pillow products, a long-term goal of hers is to open a manufacturing facility here in Kansas City.
Benditt said one of the best parts of running her business is not only hearing about how a Balm Box helped a patient get relief, but also hearing from the gift givers that they felt like they were able to help in a meaningful way.
“The comments and the feedback make me cry. They're just so awesome,” she said. “Especially on the days when I'm like, ‘It'd be so much easier to just go work for someone else. This is hard.’ It's the kind of stuff that keeps you going.”
