Brakes for Breasts: How Auto Repair Shops are Making a Difference in the Fight Against Breast Cancer
Can you imagine a world without breast cancer? A world where women can live without fear and where no one ever loses a woman they love to it. This is what inspired one small group of auto repair shops to step in and start making a difference – one brake pad at a time. And, what a difference they are making!
Brakes for Breasts is a nationwide nonprofit organization that raises money every year for The Cleveland Clinic Breast Cancer Vaccine Fund. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women, and each year more than 43,000 women die from breast cancer.
Dr. Vincent Tuohy from the Cleveland Clinic believes that our immune system can protect us from developing cancer and has been working on a vaccine to prevent Breast Cancer. The vaccine has been tested in his lab, and they now have FDA clearance to start clinical trials in human trials.
“We are proposing a fundamentally different way to control breast cancer by providing healthy, cancer-free women with preemptive immunity against the more virulent forms of the disease,” says Dr. Vincent K. Tuohy, PhD.
Brakes for Breasts supports Dr. Vincent Tuohy’s efforts to develop a vaccine to prevent breast cancer and his philosophy of prevention.
What is Brakes for Breasts?
In 2011, five Ohio auto repair shops started Brakes for Breasts to raise money for Dr. Tuohy’s Breast Cancer Vaccine research. Each time someone would come into their shop, they would provide free brake pads to the customer and donate 10 percent of the customer’s total purchase to the Breast Cancer Vaccine Fund. In the first year, these five shops raised $10,000 for the Cleveland Clinic’s breast cancer vaccine research.
Since then, Brakes for Breasts has grown to include 148 independent auto repair shops across the country, and the organization has raised over $1,407,895 for the breast cancer vaccine fund.
Brakes for Breast is not only raising money for the Breast Cancer vaccine fund, but they are also educating customers about this important research. The vaccine Dr. Tuohy and his team is developing targets the deadliest form of breast cancer. His research is also being used to develop vaccines to treat other types of cancer like ovarian and prostate cancer.
What’s Different About Brakes for Breasts?
While there has been a lot of fundraising for breast cancer and breast cancer awareness, this fundraiser is much different. The vaccine Dr. Tuohy created has been proven to be effective in laboratory animals. The Cleveland Clinic are hoping to start trials in humans this year. The funds raised from Brakes for Breasts go directly to getting this vaccine tested in human trials and available to women.
The reason why so many shops have taken part in Brakes for Breasts is because the research is so promising. If the vaccine is successful, it could keep women from getting the deadliest form of breast cancer. And, this vaccine could be used to prevent other types of cancer.
To find out more about participating in Brakes for Breasts visit BrakesforBreasts.com. If you are a shop and would like to help in the fight against breast cancer, here’s how you can participate in 2022.
October is a great month to have your brake pads replaced. Visit BrakesforBreasts.com to find a location of a participating shop. You will be helping a local mechanic and helping to fight breast cancer.
