More than 3,000 women have donated healthy breast tissue to IU's cancer center.

Listen:

Jill Henry, the Chief Operating Officer of the Susan G. Komen For The Cure Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Cancer Center, says a lot of people didn't even think healthy breast tissue could be collected, thinking there would be a lack of donors.

Henry says over the last five years the tissue bank has collected 3,002 samples and more than 8,000 blood samples.

During the donation process, a breast tissue donor is given a local anesthetic and a needle takes about one gram of tissue out, which is about the equivalent of two peas.

In 2013 tissue bank staff will be in Kenya, collecting samples and expanding the library of different ethnic backgrounds. The Susan G. Komen For The Cure Tissue Bank at the I-U Simon Cancer Center is the only healthy breast tissue bank in the world