In a world where so few resources exist for those dealing with both cancer and infertility, The Cyan Gray Hope Foundation is a non-profit organization that’s committed to changing that dynamic.
Our mission is to passionately fund metastatic breast cancer research, provide family-building grants, and inspire hope through quality content that will help more cancer thrivers and their loved ones build families.
We were founded in 2015 by Tricia Russo, an accomplished filmmaker. She’s a Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer Thriver and a mom who fought to have her son, Grayson, despite a Stage 4 cancer diagnosis in her early thirties. In the award-winning film that anchors our foundation, Love Always, Mom (2017), Tricia tells this story. This compelling documentary provides a rare look at what it’s really like to face an incurable cancer diagnosis and, as a result, walk an uncertain, intimidating path to having children through infertility, egg donation, and surrogacy.
As an organization, we are dedicated to shining a light on these kinds of stories by creating validating, empowering content to lift up those affected by cancer and infertility. We’re also here to give better tools to those that love and want to support them. In this spirit, we work as collaborative partners to many other related non-profit organizations. We also work directly with fertility practices, oncology practices, and other professionals who want to better serve and care for their patients.
In these partnerships, we offer a wide range of incredible film screening programs and educational resources from Love Always, Mom, including exciting live or virtual appearances by the filmmaker. These programs are perfect for driving awareness and advocacy. They provide engaging, thought-provoking entertainment for fundraising events, patient appreciation nights, community get-togethers and more. Whether you’d like to support your patients, your loved ones, or want to join us in shedding more light on cancer, infertility, or both – there are so many ways we can partner with you.
So, if you’re ready to help grow more family trees, let’s do it together. We’d love to speak with you soon.
from founder & PRESIDENT, TRICIA RUSSO
Our story was born from my own.
It was 2014. I was struggling. I was trying to figure out how to rebuild my life after a Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer diagnosis in my early thirties.
In realizing treatment would create infertility, I worried, “How could I have a family now – adoption, foster-to-adopt, egg donation, surrogacy, trying for IVF? With the statistics on metastatic breast cancer survival rates, might I even live long enough to build a family?” I had always known I’d wanted to be a mother, but until this happened to me, I didn’t realize how debilitated I’d feel by the lack of a self-evident path to that goal.
I looked for resources and others’ journeys through this online. While I found a few great ones, I was disappointed and lost to discover there were so few out there. I was lucky to find a nurse practitioner who helped me understand paths to family-building in the midst of cancer. I remember that just knowing there were options and that I wasn’t being selfish given my prognosis shined a light in a very dark tunnel. It was this guidance that was like a match. It lit the fire of the fight that I’d eventually go through with my husband and family to have our son, Grayson, via egg donation and surrogacy. This story is shared in our organization’s award-winning documentary, Love Always, Mom (2017).
A struggle like this is exactly why we do what we do at The Cyan Gray Hope Foundation. I founded our organization in 2015 to help shine more light in the very dark tunnels. We’re committed to finally telling the stories like mine - the ones that haven’t been told enough and have so much value when they’re shared in a community.
We do this for those that need to hear them most: cancer thrivers and those who love and support them. While my story may have led to the creation of our foundation, it keeps going because of your story. Whether you are facing cancer, you’re the partner or parent of a loved one with a diagnosis, or you’re a caregiver or practitioner – it is your journey that continues to add value and meaning to ours and those we help.
Through our foundation’s mission of funding metastatic breast cancer research, providing family-building grants, and creating more quality content on cancer and infertility, we are dedicated to helping grow as many family trees as possible. And we want you to know that wherever you are in the journey, it’s our vision to do all that we can for you as an organization. At a minimum, we’re here to assure you that you’re not alone. In our greatest hope, we’re fighting for a day where there is a cure, and you can easily have the family you both desire and deserve.
Whether you host a screening program of Love Always, Mom, attend one, donate to our mission, or share our resources with someone who needs them, we welcome your support and we welcome you to our team. Let’s proudly tell our stories and do this important work together.
Tricia Russo | trish@cyangray.org | For speaking inquiries, screening requests, etc. - contact
President | Founder | Filmmaker | Stage 4 Cancer Thriver
on behalf of the board of The Cyan Gray Hope Foundation
Our Board of Directors
Tricia Russo
Tricia previously worked in development for companies such as Miramax Films and Walt Disney Motion Pictures after earning her MFA at USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program.
Tricia was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011 and has been living with stage 4 breast cancer since February 2013. In 2015, Tricia founded The Cyan Gray Hope Foundation, a non-profit focusing on creating content to raise awareness for metastatic breast cancer and infertility.
Love Always, Mom is their first project and recently won the Audience Award at the Bentonville Film Festival and Best of the Fest at the Catalina Film Festival. Proceeds from the ultimate sale of the documentary will fund research for metastatic breast cancer, as well as other cancer and infertility initiatives. Tricia has appeared as a speaker for the Avon Foundation, Healing Gardens of NWA, served as a Hear My Voice Volunteer for Living Beyond Breast Cancer, and runs a support group for young metastatic breast cancer survivors in Los Angeles.
She resides in Los Angeles with her husband, college-sweetheart and screenwriter, Greg Russo, and their son, Grayson. Tricia currently creates screening programs around the film for partners across the world, and travels to speak on cancer and infertility. Connect with her here.
Dr. Natalie A. Cekleniak
Natalie A. Cekleniak, MD, joined the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science in 2000 and currently serves as Practice Director. She also holds a position as Director of Resident Education for the obstetrics and gynecology resident rotation in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Saint Barnabas Medical Center.
Dr. Cekleniak received her B.S. in molecular biology from Haverford College in 1989, and her medical degree from a combined program at Dartmouth Medical School and Brown University School of Medicine in 1993. She subsequently completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, and a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Dr. Cekleniak’s areas of clinical interest include embryology, age-related infertility, and diminished ovarian reserve. Her research has focused on the maturation of human eggs in the laboratory, and she is the principal author of one of the seminal research papers in the field of infertility. Dr. Cekleniak’s professional affiliations include the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and the Society of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility.
Dr. Cekleniak shares a busy household with her husband Randy and their three children.
Arlene Gonnella
For more than 35 years, Arlene has a real estate agent in the Northeast. In 2000, Arlene brought her expertise to Weichert Realtors where she has remained, producing over 1.25 billion dollars worth of real estate transactions in 18 years and receiving many industry accolades.
Her pride and joy though are her 5 children, 8 grandchildren, and growing family. She is a fierce advocate for her children when Tricia was diagnosed with breast cancer in her early 30s took it upon herself to learn a tremendous amount about the disease.
She is a fan favorite in The Cyan Gray Hope Foundation documentary Love Always, Mom. If you see the film, you’ll know why. In blog posts Tricia has dubbed her as “Mama Bear.”
Our Partner Organizations
We’re honored to collaborate, work with, and support the following organizations to further our shared missions in helping others navigating cancer and infertility.
If you’re with an organization or company that shares the dreams and goals of Cyan Gray, we’d love to connect with you about partnership and collaboration. Please reach us here.
Additionally, we welcome corporate and individual sponsorships of our foundation. For such sponsors, we also offer incredible screening programs as part of your support.