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![Sign Up With i[2]y](../images/header/join.gif){kind=small}
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WHO WE ARE
Founded by and for young adult survivors, the I'm Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation (i[2]y), is the nation's leading grassroots advocate for the next generation of cancer survivors and their caregivers in their late teens, 20s and 30s. A TIME Magazine Best 50 Website, we have helped bring the cause of 'young adult cancer' to the national spotlight and rallied a brand new generation of activists to give voice to our forgotten population. We've got your back. It's time. It's our time. It's about time! i[2]y like many advocacy organizations, was borne out of an inequity. In 1995, at the age of 21, concert pianist and composer Matthew Zachary was diagnosed with pediatric brain cancer in college and told he'd likely never perform again. He and his family were thrust into a cancer landscape much different than today. The Internet was in its infancy, cancer resources for adolescents and young adults (AYA) were few and far between and 'surviving' meant living beyond five years. Although Matthew and his family were offered comfort through a small, fragmented community, they were not able to benefit from many of today's surviorship resources. Like millions of other families, they had to go it on their own and hope for the best. Since 1996, there has been an upsurge of AYA advocacy organizations whose programs, tools and services are specifically directed at the unique needs of those aged 15-39. Many of these groups were founded by young survivors like Matthew. Unfortunately, 11 years later, despite living in an age of unbridled interconnectivity and global communications, most AYAs affected by cancer (and their providers) are simply not aware of—and therefore do not even have the option to access—the myriad of resources at their disposal. This is a shame. In 2004, Matthew founded Steps For Living (which became i[2]y in 2007), a progressive social enterprise that linked his worlds of music, cancer advocacy, consumer health marketing and technology to ensure that AYAs affected by cancer would have the opportunity to benefit from early detection as well as connect with and benefit from resources that he and his family only wished they had in 1995. Today, i[2]y is a hip national lifestyle brand that is being recognized as the next big thing at the nexus of social media and health technology. By converging these trends with youth culture marketing, boutique cancer advocacy and music/arts influence i[2]y has quickly earned the respect of the oncology community and garnered international accredidation throughout the cancer continuum. Over the past three and one half years of operation, i[2]y has forged alliances with national public health institutions and young adult advocacy organizations, launched the Web's premiere AYA community resource website, organized the first national coalition of young adult musician-survivors, nationalized an annual young adult cancer conference and socially mobilized thousands of young adults affected by cancer to a progressive new movement that is demanding change from an establishment that they have been ignored by for far too long. |
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© Copyright 2009 I'm Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation, Inc. A 501(c)3 Nonprofit Organization Registered in New York All Rights Reserved • Privacy Policy & Disclaimer |
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