We recently connected with Liz Benditt and have shared our conversation below.

Liz, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I’ve had cancer 4 times in 10 years. The first diagnosis came when my kids were toddlers, the most recent when they were preteens. Therefore, I know a thing or two about what it is like to be a working mom and patient, undergo painful surgeries and treatments, and receive a lot of well-meaning but wasteful gifts. I was especially miserable in 2017 while undergoing radiation treatment for breast cancer. I needed functional tools – like ice packs and burn balms – not pink t-shirts and lasagnas. I wondered: where is the website featuring cancer care packages for my friends to shop from?

It didn’t exist.

In March 2020, I took the plunge from FT employee to entrepreneur to launch The Balm Box. To develop our product line we surveyed over 500 patients and gift buyers. The survey asked respondents to rate almost 50 different items – broken down into four categories: Functional, Thoughtful, Motivational and Fun/Silly.
The survey results were very clear – there is a huge disconnect between what patients want and need and the gifts they are receiving. The top performing items on the survey were all functional: lotion, lip balm, aromatherapy, side pillows, and fleece blankets. The last place finishers were mostly inspirational: tote bags, worry stones, framed quotes, fidget spinners, and cancer awareness pins. Patients want soothing relief; gift buyers purchased mostly flowers, food, and t-shirts.

The Balm Box closes that gap by providing premium, elegant, and most importantly functional, care packages for cancer patients.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Our mission is to fundamentally change the ‘get well soon’ gifting industry. This market is dominated by multinational organizations selling generic, “inspiration” themed gifts like food, flowers, and decor. Our research with 500+ cancer patients and gift buyers show the clear disconnect between what cancer patients want and need, and gift buyer spending.

Cancer patients want and need functional non-prescription items like lotion, lip balm, blankets, and support pillows. They are receiving mostly casseroles they cannot tolerate, flowers with odors that make them nauseas, or inspirational mugs they do not need. To add insult to injury, they send a heartfelt thank-you note to the gift buyer, who is blithely unaware of their ineptitude and therefore continues to spend thousands of dollars on the same useless gifts, continuing the useless cancer care gift cycle. It’s such an incredible waste of time, energy, and money that in no way truly helps friends and family undergoing cancer treatments.

Cancer patient gifting can and should be functional. The Balm Box offers gift buyers curated care packages filled with genuinely useful items that cancer patients actively want, need, and will use.

It is incredibly satisfying to get feedback from gift buyers and patients about how their Balm Box gave them hope and joy. Buyers’ gift messages to patients are heart wrenching and regularly take my breath away. I feel confident I am on a mission to make life just a little better for cancer patients and their friends and family who feel so helpless when faced with how to support their loved ones with cancer.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Cancer taught me the discipline of gratitude.

Despite having had cancer 4 times in 10 years I remain grateful – I genuinely see myself as lucky! I see the hardships that so many go through because of even a single cancer diagnosis – from losing jobs, to bankruptcy, to crumbling marriages and unsupportive friends and family. All four times, in every way, I was SO lucky, and ergo SO grateful.
– I was never at the risk of losing my job(s) – I worked with phenomenally kind and generous leaders that gave me enormous grace to take time for treatments and recovery without penalizing my career trajectory or income.
– I had comprehensive insurance coverage – our out-of-pocket costs were affordable. Cancer did not come close to bankrupting our family.
– My marriage is rock solid – never once did my illnesses crack our relationship. My husband was and is my #1 fan, and firmly supported every one of my treatment decisions – even those I chose not to pursue. He came to all my consultation appointments, asked thoughtful questions, and made goofy dad jokes to lighten the mood in the room. We were (and are!) a team.
– My support system is amazing – I have an incredible network of friends and family that rose to the occasion again and again to support me and my family. From meals, to carpools, to chatty visits I felt supported and cared for – all four times.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I like to think of myself as a medical miracle. I survived four cancers over 8 years: 2009: Melanoma Skin Cancer
2010: Thyroid Cancer
2015: Basal Cell Skin Cancer
2017: Breast Cancer

By necessity, my approach to treating myself and my illnesses have changed over time. After experiencing VERY RARE side effects from thyroid surgery, I stopped automatically following ‘standard treatment’ protocols and took back control of my care and recovery process. I found that when I contributed to my treatment plans, I was better prepared for the inevitable side effects.

Although the melanoma was by far my most potentially lethal cancer, and the facial plastic surgeries for basal cell were incredibly painful, the breast cancer experience and treatment were the absolute worst. Perhaps I was overconfident about my youth and ability to fight it / overcome it, or it’s possible my fair skin was destined to react badly to radiation – it’s impossible to know. Regardless, despite thinking I would knock out radiation and be able to continue working full time and running half-marathons my body failed me and I was flabbergasted by my situation. There were two concurrent issues:

1. It was incredibly difficult to predict what tools I would need to go through and recover from radiation until I was in the middle of it, scrambling for bra-alternatives, aluminum-free deodorant, and burn salves. A nurse made me a mini-pillow to hold between my seatbelt and breast so that the belt wouldn’t chafe. There was no central resource, website, or retailer known for all this ‘stuff’ and I found myself up late at night researching page 20 searches on google and amazon looking for solutions. Most of the cancer-treatments and gifts online were pink ribboned cute/sassy t-shirts and mugs – I wanted relief not stuff.

2. Friends and neighbors all want to DO something … and they predominantly bring food/cook. It’s super nice and appreciated, but honestly my husband and son are extremely picky eaters and would have preferred takeout. I wasn’t able to exercise and would have preferred lighter / lower calorie fare. It was frustrating because it was all so WELL MEANING but in reality, not awesome to receive.

I’ve been contemplating various forms of Balm Box since 2017. After developing a business plan and gaining initial funding to support the hard costs associated with the startup expenses, I made the (oh so terrifying!) decision to keep my part time teaching position at the University of Kansas School of Business, but leave my full time job as a marketing executive and focus on Balm Box full time in Spring 2020. Who could have known that would coincide with a global pandemic?!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.TheBalmBox.com
• Instagram: @BalmBoxIG
• Facebook: @TheBalmBox
• Twitter: @BoxBalm