by Keech Combe Shetty
Executive Chair, Combe, Inc., and
Board Chair, Personal Care Products Council
As the third-generation leader of the business started by my grandparents, I feel a certain sense of duty and obligation to embrace and perpetuate their dream that inspired Combe more than 70 years ago. Because they approached our business as a family, I have never known a reality where the company, and the personal care products industry, was not deeply intertwined with my nuclear family.
As such, I hold the same hopes, dreams and aspirations for my company and our collective industry as I do for my own family: that we reach for our highest ambitions; that we treat one another with kindness, dignity and respect while achieving those aspirations; that we live and work for a purpose greater than ourselves.
That’s why Look Good Feel Better is so important to me. I know how challenging a cancer diagnosis can be for families, because I’ve lived through the experience alongside my lifelong best friend, Reshma. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, our intertwined families felt the impact. Her struggles became our struggles and fears. Her strength and determination to reclaim her health fostered our hope.
Standing with Reshma through her journey invigorates my passion about Look Good Feel Better and the incredible support that we as an industry provide to women in cancer treatment. Over the past 18 months – in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic – Look Good Feel Better has not wavered from its mission. When the pandemic rendered hosting in-person workshops impossible, Look Good Feel Better was there, ready to expand its LIVE! virtual workshop platform and provide a vital means of connection and support to women already feeling isolated and vulnerable because of their diagnosis.
Responding to this challenge has become Look Good Feel Better’s greatest opportunity. We all know the transformative power of digital media to fundamentally change the way we do businesses. This year, Look Good Feel Better expanded its virtual presence beyond its core beauty workshops to include new content geared for every woman who wants to feel better. This exciting new content strategy, paired with its core beauty content, is enabling Look Good Feel Better to reach more women than ever before.
And reaching more women means helping more women.
As leaders of the personal care products industry, we can do our part by supporting Look Good Feel Better’s annual BeautyCares DreamBall, which will be held virtually on Sept. 23, 2021. This year’s DreamBall will honor legends, advocates, heroes and survivors, including Leonard A. Lauder, chairman emeritus of the Estee Lauder Companies and honorary chair of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, with the inaugural Legacy Award; Esi Eggleston Bracey, COO and EVP of Beauty and Personal Care at Unilever, NA, with the Passionate Leadership Award; and television personality and author (and two-time breast cancer survivor) Bershan Shaw with the Survivor Advocate Award.
When we rally the collective will and resources of our industry to help Look Good Feel Better, we are helping our families, our friends and our colleagues in the process. There truly is no limit to what we can accomplish.
Please join me at this year’s DreamBall (from the comfort of home, in your best cocktail attire!). Donate generously to support Look Good Feel Better’s mission to help women rediscover their self-esteem, confidence and hope in the midst of a life-threatening illness. Your participation and generosity will enable us to serve many more women who need our help.
Thank you for your continued support of Look Good Feel Better and its ambitious mission to serve women anywhere and everywhere. I look forward to seeing all of you online on September 23!
