In 2009, when Z learned of her best friend Cecy’s breast cancer diagnosis at age 26, her world was upended. She was appalled at the lack of breast cancer awareness among women, herself included. Clearly, if the medical establishment only begins breast cancer screening for women 40 and above, yet her friend and so many other women were contracting the disease at far younger ages, something would have to change. 

Z rallied her community and organized a weightlifting event to raise money to support Cecy through her treatment. When Cecy refused the money and asked that Z use the funds raised to help others struggling with breast cancer, Barbells for Boobs was born. From that moment on, it was full-speed ahead, and Barbells for Boobs evolved from a fledgling organization with no long-term plan, to a lean, innovative organization (that’s extremely well-branded) out to revolutionize the long-term standard of breast cancer care in the United States. 

“In the social sector, we get so caught up with numbers sometimes, and impact, and variety of impact that we sometimes undermine the quality of the impact. Quality to me has become the most important and not the quantity. Where for a long time, I really focused on the quantity. And I think that it was after losing my sister, what I realized, we had done so much work in early detection, like provided over 50,000 procedures, done all this transformative work in the screening deficit in our country. And I was like, I haven't met one person. I don't know anybody I've helped. I lost my sister to breast cancer. Once you have that aha wake up moment for me, it was more important than ever to know the people I was helping. And that's when Barbells for Boobs transformed for me.” - Zionna Hanson

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Disrupting the breast cancer sector hasn’t come easy. Barbells for Boobs has had its fair share of challenges, and plenty of ups and downs along the way, but an unrelenting tenacity, resilience, clear values, and willingness to “ask for forgiveness instead of permission” have driven some incredible success over the past 12 years.

“I think that your why has to be so strong and if your why isn't strong, then it's not real.  I think that it's, if you don't want to quit every day, your why isn't strong enough,  I definitely want to quit every single day. It's hard. It's work is hard. There's,  I always tell people you're, you're investing in other people every single day. But for me, this is our investment. This is proof of our work is the people that we get to serve that to me is bigger than anything….
This is what I was put on this earth to do. This is mine. And no matter how much I try to deviate from it.” - Zionna Hanson

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Z’s humility and passion really shines through in Cause and Purpose Episode 6, and there are tons of great (and actionable!) insights to glean from our conversation. We hope you enjoy it!

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