about us

I was 49 years old when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2004. My friends and health care professionals suggested many things to help me get through chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. Aside from products given to me by two dental hygienists, a lot of energy was spent tracking down various items.

During and in between treatments, I knew I wanted to share my experiences. I often thought . . .

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everything a cancer patient might need came organized in a kit?”

The first generation of Hurdle Jumpers® kits were “my chemo care kit” and “my radiation care kit”. All Hurdle Jumpers® kits had a practical focus: to give patients a sense of control through education and knowledge, along with the items on hand if and when needed. This would make it easier to get through the medical experience and manage related side effects.  At first I thought the kits would be for breast cancer patients, like myself, but I quickly realized other types of cancer patients could benefit as well.

Both kits contained a sheet of reminders and tips, donated samples and A Blue Day Book- A Lesson in Cheering Yourself Up by Bradley Trevor Greive. I found these products and comfort items enormously helpful during months of chemo, before and after surgeries, and during radiation treatments.

These kits were provided free of charge. We wanted the patient to focus on getting well, rather than having to re-invent the wheel.

My mother died from breast cancer when I was eleven years old. I was stunned when I found a lump. With that, I decided to make lemon meringue pie with the lemons of a cancer diagnosis.

This was an unmet need. Until now.

Although they try, health care professionals cannot completely prepare a patient for all the possible side effects of treatment. I received many good tips, but I also discovered a lot on my own.

I’m a management consultant with JRH Consulting Group, a firm I founded in 1985. Professionally, as a Certified Public Accountant with more than twenty-years of experience in public accounting and private industry, I’ve solved many problems. I always say “my clients are happy to see me go.” And here’s the only similarity between my cancer treatment experience and my business consulting projects: there’s a beginning, a middle, and an end.

I began my career at Arthur Andersen, and gained extensive financial management experience as controller of two middle market companies. I’ve consulted in both the profit and non-profit sectors, and relied on my considerable business problem solving skills in approaching the generous donor companies. One by one, I contacted nationally recognized companies, and the responses from the pharmaceutical and health & beauty industries were extraordinary. They quickly and generously chipped in with sample size donations. It was so important to me the kits be provided free of charge to any cancer patient or caregiver. My second bedroom was stacked with boxes, but when pallets of generous donations started to arrive, we moved into a climate-controlled storage facility.