SUCCESSSTORIES
INSPIRING TALES OF STARTUPS, GROWTH AND OVERCOMING HARDSHIPS
Giving Women the Freedom to Beat Breast Cancer
n
IrA KAgANovSKy Founder/cEO
Free brands, LLc Hendeson, Nevada
n
e are paranoid about everything;
what we eat, where we live, our
By
genetic history. Perhaps any one
ASHLEy
ALt
of those factors, or a combination of them,
contributes to the development of cancer, but
maybe the real culprit is stressing over those things.
While the survival rate of breast cancer is 90 percent if
caught early, the best thing we can do is continue to be
proactive and raise awareness, but are we doing enough? Someone
a few years back put it best – “I don’t have time for cancer.”
That someone was a dear friend to Ira Kaganovsky, founder of
Freedom natural deodorant, ISPA member and mother of three
girls. Operating out of Las Vegas, Kaganovsky is making natural
normal through her all-natural antiperspirants.
When Kaganovsky’s best friend Cindy (one out of three
friends diagnosed with breast cancer in an 18-month time span)
was told by her doctor to stop using antiperspirants upon her
diagnosis, Kaganovsky, stunned, immediately stopped using
them and began searching for natural options instead.
After frequenting her local grocery store in search of natural
deodorants, Kaganovsky concluded that they simply did not
work; they weren’t absorbing sweat, they didn’t smell great and
they weren’t lasting more than a few hours. This continued for a
year before Free Brands Inc. was born.
“I turned into a mad scientist,” Kaganovsky said. “I turned my
kitchen into a lab where I was melting beeswax and coconut oil,
W
“When Kaganovsky’s best
friend [was] diagnosed with
breast cancer [she] was told
by her doctor to stop using
antiperspirants,
Kaganovsky, stunned,
immediately stopped using
them and began searching
for natural options instead.”
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October 2017
researching all the right ingredients –
what smelled right, what looked right,
figuring out how to make lavender
citrus smoother.”
Kaganovsky gave her first
homemade product to Cindy,
receiving a phone call from her two
days later crying because she didn’t
wake up in a pile of sweat, she
smelled good and “her kids weren’t
afraid of her.”
After six months of intensive chemotherapy,
Cindy’s skin was reacting poorly to the treatment, she was losing
her hair and she was thrust into early menopause. This antiper-
spirant made her feel normal again amidst the challenging
circumstances.
While there is no proof or direct correlation linking the use of
unnatural antiperspirant to breast cancer, Cindy’s doctor’s expla-
nation of using something somewhat toxic that close to your
lymph nodes was enough for Kaganovsky to pursue her business.
“If you aren’t letting your body get all the toxins out of the
body, then where are they going?” Kaganovsky asked herself. “I
don’t care what all of the ‘green’ bloggers are saying, natural
deodorants sold at drug stores don’t work.”
Wanting answers, Kaganovsky sought out a few local doctors,
even chemists, asking their opinion on the leading cause of cancer
when they told her, “they don’t know what causes cancer.”
“It’s like the high heel debate,” Kaganovsky told us. “They tell
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Kaganovsky with her three daughters, who are constantly inspiring her work.