Who better to create a product for cancer patients who have undergone chemotherapy than a cancer survivor?

That’s what a young cancer victim from Tamaulipas has done in creating an oncological shampoo that promotes hair growth in chemotherapy patients.

Perla del Rocío González Saavedra, 21, was diagnosed with leukemia four years ago as she was concluding her preparatory school studies.

“I had a very bad time in chemotherapy during the initial stages of my ailment. My jaw was dislocated, I lost 10 kilograms . . . and my hair started to fall out,” remembered the nutrition and food sciences undergraduate.

At the time her physicians recommended she stop using toiletries containing chemicals, such as most body lotions, shampoos and soaps.

“I started looking for natural things that could help me for the duration of my treatment, but what I found was either really expensive or only available in other countries. It was then I decided to do more research,” said González.

“My mother and I found several medicinal plants and we mixed them to create a shampoo. I was the first patient to test the resulting product, as I had grown tired of wigs and had resorted to using turbans,” she recalled.

Among the ingredients used in the homemade product are rosemary, aloe vera and dragon’s blood resin, along with a cleansing agent.

After finding first-hand that the product worked, González started sharing it with other chemotherapy patients.

“Hair loss is always a shocking experience, even if you’re not a chemotherapy patient. It really affected us as teenagers.”

Those who had witnessed the positive effects of the shampoo encouraged González to take it to several product innovation contests, which she consistently won, moving up from the local to the national level, in the end gaining a patent for her product.

It is now being sold under the brand name Zoet in tribute to a five-year-old cancer patient González had known.

“Zoet means sweet in Dutch. She was my friend, a very cheerful and positive girl. She always wore princess costumes and wanted to be a famous model when she grew up,” recalled González.

But Zoet died shortly after González won her first prize with the shampoo. It was then she decided to name the product in her memory. “She won’t get to be a great model, but she’ll have her own brand,” said González.

An entrepreneur now, González wants to put her product within reach of every cancer patient. For the time being, she sells a budding line of oncological products on her Facebook page.

Source: Milenio (sp)