Hook a rubber band through your pants button hole and secure the other side to the button for an extra half-inch of breathing room.

Use dryer sheets as shoe deodorizers.

Fabric netting, which can be easily torn for size, makes a great dish scrubber.

A medium-sized paperclip can be a key chain, a zipper tab or the weighted nose on a paper airplane.

An empty tissue box makes a clever receptacle for plastic bags.

We are all familiar with items that have been invented and patented for one purpose only to be discovered that they are useful for many more.   

These repurposed ideas, born out of simple necessity, are similar to the mindful path Partnership for Cures and our funding partners take: encouraging scientists and clinicians to find alternative treatment options for catastrophic diseases by repurposing already FDA approved drugs and devices. 

Repurposing drugs and devices may not be as simple as untwisting a coat hanger and using it to resolve an itch that can’t be reached any other way but it is a predictable and inexpensive way to solve the desperate need for treatments for patients who have no other hope for a cure.