What We Do and Why

Keeping a Cool Head and a Warm Heart

When Liz Formoza was re-diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016, her first thought was of her four beautiful kids.  She remembered what it was like as they all gathered to shave her head.  Explaining what she was doing to her four kids under five had been tough, but it would be even more difficult now that they were older.  She wanted to see what her options were and what the road ahead looked like before adding fear and stress to their lives.  Enter Scalp Cooling, a treatment that can prevent chemotherapy induced hair loss by cooling the hair follicles.

Liz had been using the Paxman Scalp Cooling System at Dana Farber in Boston.  She had years of treatments while keeping her hair and maintaining a sense of normalcy at home, at work, and even places like the grocery store where she could go without people giving her what she called cancer eyes.   It helped her maintain a sense of control in an otherwise uncontrollable  situation and to save normal a bit for herself and her family. When her chemotherapy treatments were moved to Syracuse, Dana Farber, Upstate, and Paxman worked together to have a machine delivered so that Liz would be able to continue using it.  

Upstate Cancer Center has embraced this technology and is making it available to others.  However, scalp cooling is not yet covered by all insurance plans and can be expensive.  With that in mind, Liz and her friends set up The Cool Head Project Fund through the Upstate Foundation to help off-set the cost and make this available to more patients.  Even while fighting her own battle with constant hope, grace, and strength, she worked to raise awareness and funds so that we could do our small part to help people keep a cool head and save normal as they navigate through their diagnosis. On February 22, 2020, we lost our dear friend Liz. She was the force behind The Cool Head Project, and we will strive to make her proud every day.