Ray of Hope
A Personal Message from Raymond Palys

Breast cancer indiscriminately affects the lives of millions of ordinary people each and every year. To put that into perspective, in 2003 the American Cancer Society is projecting that 211,300 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States alone, an increase of 3.8% over 2002's projection of 203,500 women. Furthermore, approximately 40,000 women will die from the disease this year and there are approximately 2 to 3 million breast cancer survivors in the United States. If you are reading this, you may be a survivor yourself or have a loved one who has courageously battled this devastating disease - the number of us are well into the millions.

I use the words "indiscriminately affects" in the opening sentence because, in over 90% of breast cancer cases, there is no family history of the disease. In general, women do not feel they are at risk for breast cancer if no one within their immediate or extended family has ever been diagnosed with breast cancer.

I have been personally affected, as have many of you, by breast cancer. In 1994, my wife Debbie, at the very young age of 27 was diagnosed with breast cancer. Debbie died from the disease in 1998 at the age of 31, after a long and hard-fought three and one half year battle - no family history of breast cancer in Debbie's family. In 2001, another massive jolt occurred to my family as my 42-year old sister, Renee, was diagnosed with breast cancer - no family history of breast cancer in our family either. She has now begun her own fight with breast cancer. After a mastectomy and nine months of chemotherapeutic and radiation treatment, Renee is in remission - we hope and pray for many years.

Whenever the topic of breast cancer comes up in a conversation, as it often does for me, just about every person I speak with knows of someone who is a survivor or someone who has died from the disease. When I relate the 90% non-hereditary statistic, women are generally shocked. The words that usually follow are, Why are so many women developing breast cancer? and What can we do to prevent it?  These are two questions that are receiving increased world-wide attention by the minute. The Breast Cancer Prevention Foundation was founded in the memory of my late wife, Deborah Demos Palys, to fund scientific and clinical research in the area of breast cancer prevention. A percentage of Brevail sales are donated to this foundation.

My experiences of the last ten years have led me to where I am today, serving as President of Lignan Research, LLC. Many of you may recall former United States President Richard Nixon's declaration of "War Against Cancer" back in 1971. He declared that by the year 2000 we would conquer cancer by finding a cure. Well, it's now thirty-two years later and we still have no "cure." I believe the "cure" lies in proactive health as opposed to treatment. My hope and dream is for Lignan Research and Brevail to be the catalyst that makes proactive breast health a reality.

Following this letter is a short story that tells of the ten-year journey that brought me to where I am today.

With hope and a dream, an angel named Debbie and my sister Renee to motivate and inspire me...

Sincerely yours,

Raymond Palys
President
Lignan Research, LLC

Ray of Hope
As written by Raymond Palys

Someone once said, "Life is like an embroidered picture. When you first look closely at the underside, it appears meaningless, confusing, and abstract. However, when you turn it over and take a step back, you see a beautiful display of color, imagery and meaning." Well, that, quite possibly, is the best way to describe my life events of the past ten years.

A little over twenty years ago, in college, I vividly remember a question posed to me by a girl I was dating at the time. Her name was Carolyn, and her question was, "How would you react if I developed breast cancer and had to have my breasts removed? Would you still love me? Would you remain at my side throughout the whole ordeal?"

My response was, "Carolyn, I can't predict for certain how I would react, but I would hope that yes, I would still love you and remain at your side throughout the whole ordeal." I never thought about that conversation until about fifteen years later, when this situation became a reality in my life. To this day, I still wonder why I had to ponder such a pointed question during that carefree time in my life.

This story begins in 1992 - with that fabled and significant experience of love at first sight - and leads to the present, 2003.

In 1992, while working for an occupational healthcare company, I attended a meeting at the corporate office and caught a glimpse of the woman who would later become my wife. I was told she was a paralegal in our collections department. A few months later, I received an interoffice memo introducing Debbie Demos, the paralegal assigned to my region. The memo stated that she would be visiting my office to introduce herself and to meet my staff.

As I read the memo I wondered if this was the woman who had caught my attention a few months earlier. Well, when the day came and I went out to the reception area to meet her, it was, as you guessed, the woman I was hoping it would be. I felt my heart drop to the ground. It was truly love at first sight.

After she left, two of my staff came up to me and said, "You really like her, don't you?" to which I replied, "She doesn't know it yet, but she is going to be my wife someday." Now, for me, this was a bold and uncharacteristic statement, but for reasons unknown at the time, I made it. Within a month we had our first date, and three months later we became engaged.

A year quickly passed, and on October 30, 1993, we were married. We celebrated our honeymoon in Cancun, Mexico, a location that would have further significance for me about seven years later.

Married for only eight short months, our lives changed forever.

In July of 1994, I discovered a tiny lump the size of a pea in Debbie's left breast. She had the lump examined by her doctor and he advised her to observe the lump and have it removed if it grew. We were told the odds of the lump being malignant at age 27, was something like 1 in 30,000. Not willing to gamble, we decided to have the lump surgically removed and a biopsy performed.

Two days later, during a post-operative office visit, I was summoned from the waiting area to the doctor's office. This struck me as strange because Debbie was not there. Within a couple minutes the doctor came into the office, and with a serious and strained look on his face, he said, "Ray, I'm very sorry. The tumor is malignant. Your wife has breast cancer."

After a short discussion, Debbie was brought into the office. She saw the tears running down my face and knew the worst was true before any words were spoken. The date was August 18, 1994. Our lives, our hopes, and our dreams would never be the same.

The next three and a half years were an emotional roller coaster. The ups, when she would have a positive response to a certain treatment, and the downs, when we would anxiously await test results only to find the tumors growing or the cancer metastasizing.

Debbie's breast cancer metastasized to her ribs, lungs, brain, and spine. Faith, hope and love became the cornerstones of our daily lives. Over that several year period, we experienced, what we called "many little miracles." These were things like the ability to travel and spend quality time together, an understanding and real appreciation for life, an opportunity for closeness in marriage - to become soul mates, and many more incredible little miracles. However, the big miracle, that of complete remission, never came through.

Debbie's battle plan included just about every available chemotherapeutic drug alone and in combination, radiation, multiple surgeries, a stem cell transplant, gamma knife treatments, complementary treatments such as vitamins and minerals, herbs, acupuncture, and even a healer. Prayer after prayer, surgery after surgery, treatment after treatment, diagnostic test after diagnostic test, Debbie became weaker and weaker.

On March 3, 1998, Debbie lost her battle with breast cancer at the young age of 31.

Shortly after her death, I dedicated a bench in loving memory of Debbie, at a bluff site overlooking the vast Pacific Ocean in San Diego, California. Swami's, as the site is named, is a stunningly beautiful place. I call this place, where I proposed marriage to Debbie, "heaven-on-earth."

That bench became my therapist. I went there every day for several months, finding strength and searching for meaning. On many occasions I recall thinking, "In twenty years, I'll be able to look back on my life, and what I've accomplished will be a direct result of my experience with cancer." At that time, I had no idea how, when or where that would happen.

In the several years following Debbie's death, I focused on my occupation as a management consultant. In the fall of 2000, I accepted an assignment with a client in Washington state, Barlean's Organic Oils.

For business, I normally don't like to travel more than an hour by plane from my home in San Diego, but this assignment intrigued me. I was aware of scientific studies that indicated the benefits of Flax Oil in reducing risks for cancer, and felt I could have an impact on their company. During this assignment, a friendship between the senior managers of the company, an outside consultant, and myself developed. One of the individuals was Jade Beutler, CEO of Lignan Research, L.L.C.

I concluded my consulting work in December of that year. In a follow-up conversation with Jade, in early 2001, I was invited to join the company for a business meeting in Cancun, Mexico. I gave it some thought, and accepted the invitation. The idea of a little rest and relaxation on the beaches of Cancun sounded quite timely and appealing.

We arrived at the Club Med facility in Cancun on a Saturday in February 2001. As we were taking in our surroundings, I noticed the hotel adjacent to the Club Med was the Westin Regina. I felt a little chill run down my spine because the Westin Regina was where Debbie and I honeymooned in October of 1993.

As my eyes wandered down the beach, our happiness together, which seemed like only yesterday, filled my thoughts. I recalled the beautiful aqua water and our first day on the beach where, in the sand, we spelled with our bare feet, "Ray + Deb." The memories were very pleasant, and I knew I would enjoy reliving those wonderful moments.

Early, on that Tuesday morning; I grabbed a cup of coffee and headed to the beach. It was a beautiful and tranquil morning, and I had the marketing plan for a new product Lignan Research was developing as my reading material.

The product was for proactive breast health, specifically for the risk reduction of breast cancer in the 90% of women without hereditary predisposition for the disease. In the marketing plan were excerpts of scientific research indicating the ability of lignan, a naturally occurring substance in Flaxseed, to reduce risk for certain cancers.

It seemed surreal that I was sitting on this beach, just 100 yards away from where I'd honeymooned, reading about a natural product being developed to reduce the risk of breast cancer, the disease that took the life of my wife. It was on this day, February 13, 2001, that my new journey began. I would fulfill my personal mission to bring meaning to Debbie's passing.

By the end of the week, Jade and I were discussing my joining the team and the contributions I'd be able to make.

In the two years since joining the company, much has been done in laying the foundation for the launch of Brevail. It is my hope and belief that increasing the awareness of cancer prevention will, and at an accelerating rate, fund the necessary research to develop additional products and other means to reduce risks for cancer, and ultimately prevent it. I have a dream, that dream is for Brevail and the Breast Cancer Prevention Foundation, founded in the memory of my late wife, Deborah Demos Palys, to fund scientific and clinical research in the area of breast cancer prevention, to be a significant catalyst in helping achieve victory in the "War Against Cancer." Victory will be achieved each and every time a woman, or those close to her, do not have to hear the words, "I'm very sorry, but your tumor is malignant. You have breast cancer."

If I take a step back from my life and look at it as an embroidered picture, I see my ensuing journey as a beautiful display of color, imagery and meaning -- a gift from, and in loving memory of, Deborah Demos Palys.