Two cancer survivors turned their diagnosis into a fashion brand funding screenings

Brooks Bell and Sarah Beran met because of late-stage colon cancer. Both were in their 30s when symptoms started. Both had to push back against doctors who dismissed their concerns before getting the colonoscopies that saved their lives.

Now they run Worldclass, a fashion brand with a deliberately cheeky mission: every sweatshirt, every "Colonoscopy Enthusiast" tee sold funds colonoscopies for underinsured patients in Western North Carolina.

The diagnosis that became a business

Bell is from North Carolina, Beran from California. They bonded over shared experience — the skepticism, the self-advocacy, the relief of catching cancer early. That relief matters. A colonoscopy doesn't just find precancer. It removes it.

What struck both of them wasn't just their own survival. It was the gap they saw afterward. "The stigma is ridiculous," Beran told Raleigh Magazine. "I want it to feel like just another part of your wellness routine." Colorectal cancer is preventable in most cases, yet screening rates remain stubbornly low — partly because talking about it feels awkward, partly because access is uneven.

So they made the awkward part the brand. A slogan that makes you laugh, then think. Merchandise that starts conversations. And a commitment: every purchase directly supports the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, ensuring that cost isn't a barrier to the screening that could save someone's life.

It's a model that works because it doesn't ask people to choose between wanting to help and wanting to wear something they actually like. You buy a sweatshirt. Someone gets a colonoscopy. Someone else catches a polyp before it becomes cancer.

Bell and Beran are now watching their company grow beyond the region they started in, but the mission stays the same. Two women who refused to accept their doctors' initial dismissal are now making sure others don't have to fight as hard for the care that could save them.