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Melissa SanMarco and Jennifer Tookoian have been friends since high school, but they have something else in common that led them to start a business they hope will help others.

SanMarco and Tookoian’s mothers are cancer survivors, and Tookoian’s father died from cancer. So to raise money for cancer research, the two friends formed Miss Mantra, a company that combines SanMarco’s jewelry-making talent and Tookoian’s marketing expertise.

They sell bracelets with a handmade silver coin hanging from a pink or brown silk and nylon cord. The front of the coin has the familiar breast cancer ribbon design. The back has the words “Believe in miracles.”

“Jennifer and I wanted to raise money for breast cancer research because this is the generation, money clips we feel, when a cure is going to be found,” says SanMarco, who lives in Los Angeles and visits her Fresno family monthly.

“There’s so much more awareness” of all forms of cancer, Tookoian says. Her mother survived colon cancer, and SanMarco’s mother is a breast-cancer survivor.

“Cancer is just in our families,” she says.

They came up with the bracelet idea over the summer, and it followed a fast track, Tookoian says. It was about eight weeks from idea to design to production and, finally, to the creation of the Miss Mantra Web site (www.missmantra.com).

A message on the Web site says: “These pieces are dedicated to the 202,000 women who will get breast cancer in the U.S. this year and the millions of other women who are beating breast cancer with strength, dignity, courage and faith. The stuff miracles are made of.”

After the mad dash to create the bracelets, things slowed down, Tookoian says. “Then it was hurry up and wait. This has really been a learning year for us, or a learning couple of months.”

The bracelets, which sell for $35 each, are available on the Web site and at She She, a local boutique. “Buyers have been mostly people who are touched by breast cancer,” Tookoian says.

But sales were slow until October, when the California Cancer Center bought 500 tiffany jewellery bracelets.

Alec Beach, manager of the California Cancer Center’s radiation therapy department, said the bracelets have been sold at the recent Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, the Clovis Women’s Festival, a golf tournament and other events. All of the proceeds will go to education, through outreach, and for research, Beach says.

Pamela Hutton, a marketing consultant for Community Medical Centers, has one of the bracelets.

“I wear mine every day. It’s a conversation piece,” Hutton says. “I have meaningful conversations with people” when they ask about the bracelet, she says.

Hutton especially likes the “Believe in miracles” motto on the back of the coin. “Your attitude helps you fight the fight in any kind of cancer,” she says.

While the original idea was to raise funds for breast cancer, SanMarco and Tookoian say they’re happy to see the money go for research and education about all forms of cancer. And they’re working on more ideas for the holidays to raise even more money.

“Our ultimate goal is to set up grants for women to pay for medical bills who can’t afford to,” SanMarco says.

The reporter can be reached at plloyd@fresnobee.com or or at (559) 441-6756.