{"id":7075981,"date":"2026-10-04T19:01:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T19:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7075981"},"modified":"2026-10-04T19:01:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T19:01:43","slug":"honoring-a-legacy-and-saving-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7075981","title":{"rendered":"Honoring a Legacy and Saving Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<h2 itemprop=\"name\" class=\"entry_title\"><span itemprop=\"dateCreated\" class=\"date entry_date updated\">17 Feb<meta itemprop=\"interactionCount\" content=\"UserComments: 0\"\/><\/span> FOUNDER: Honoring a Legacy and Saving Lives<\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Channeling tragedy into a new sense of purpose<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">by Tamara E. Holmes<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.executivewomanmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/50.Founder.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-16544\" src=\"https:\/\/www.executivewomanmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/50.Founder.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.executivewomanmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/50.Founder.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.executivewomanmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/50.Founder-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\"\/><\/a>For Kathryn Cross, the year 2021 was transformative, to say the least.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Her 19-year-old brother, Andrew, passed away in February of that year, following a battle with cerebral palsy. She would sometimes wonder whether he could have been saved, since her family discovered research suggesting that Andrew might have survived had he been able to receive an infusion of his own umbilical-cord blood.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Cross, 26, didn\u2019t want other families to experience the pain she was enduring, so that same year she channeled her grief into creating Anja Health, a company that allows parents to store a baby\u2019s stem cells in a lab. \u201cI wanted to do something that would\u2019ve helped Andrew and also have the maximum amount of impact,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Cord blood stem cells have been used to treat such diseases as cancer and sickle cell anemia. They\u2019re being studied as a treatment for cerebral palsy, autism, lupus, and a range of other conditions. While it\u2019s possible to find a stranger whose genetic makeup is similar enough that their stem cells can be used, it\u2019s typically difficult, and even more so for people of color. When parents store their baby\u2019s cord stem cells, they ensure later access to the cells, giving their child the best chance of surviving a major illness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In starting the business, Cross learned that many parents don\u2019t understand how cord and placenta stem cells could aid their children in the future. \u201cI felt like I would be a good person to help bridge that knowledge gap, so I started making TikToks, and they went viral pretty quickly,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Not only did she pique the interest of parents, but she caught the attention of investors, with the company raising $4.5 million in venture capital.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Finding investors was like dating, Cross says, because she was looking for people who aligned with her values. \u201cI also wanted investors who really seemed to care about the end users, who for us were pregnant parents,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">One of her biggest challenges in the four years since starting her business has been learning how to be an effective manager. She has learned on the job, however, proving that experience is often the best teacher.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As she continues to build her business, each step is a way of keeping Andrew\u2019s memory alive. She recently read about the concept of \u201cthe glass child,\u201d a term used to describe the feeling of responsibility often felt by the sibling of a child with a chronic illness or a disability. She says the description fits her to a T.<br \/>\u201cI think that\u2019s been integral to who I am today,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Finding investors was like dating, Cross says, because she was looking for people who aligned with her values.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>17 Feb FOUNDER: Honoring a Legacy and Saving Lives Channeling tragedy into a new sense of purpose by Tamara E. Holmes For Kathryn Cross, the year 2021 was transformative, to say the least. Her 19-year-old brother, Andrew, passed away in February of that year, following a battle with cerebral palsy. She would sometimes wonder whether [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7075982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106447,128401,97872,12280,106448],"tags":[14648,1351,13550,5050],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7075981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-executive-woman","category-founder","category-front-page","category-leadership","category-new-articles","tag-honoring","tag-legacy","tag-lives","tag-saving"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Honoring a Legacy and Saving Lives - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7075981\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Honoring a Legacy and Saving Lives - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"17 Feb FOUNDER: Honoring a Legacy and Saving Lives Channeling tragedy into a new sense of purpose by Tamara E. 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