National Young Adult Cancer Awareness Week is April 4-8, 2016.
This article was co-authored by Gregory Parent, program assistant, The Samfund. Greg’s role at The Samfund is to facilitate the programs that help our young adult survivor community. A graduate of the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY, Greg has a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work with a dual major in Religious Studies. Having previously worked supporting cancer survivors who have traveled away from home during their treatment, Greg is excited to continue helping a community of people he has grown to love.
Another month, another cancer awareness initiative—so why should we pay attention to this one? While the acronym for National Young Adult Cancer Awareness Week, NYACAW, doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, it needs to be taken seriously. Young adults (YAs, and for these purposes, defined as those between 15 to 39 years old) face specific, unique challenges that other age groups do not, and it’s
important to understand
how and why
they are different, especially when facing cancer, and regarding their financial health in particular:
NYACAW was established in 2002 by Selma Schimmel, the visionary founder of Vital Options International. In her honor, we continue to recognize this week as an opportunity to raise awareness; engage more individuals, groups, and communities in this important conversation; and change the perception of young adult cancer. While we have been involved in previous NYACAW efforts, this year we have much more to offer: with our recently published
, we’ve put our stake in the ground as a leading expert in financial toxicity and young adults
—
and NYACAW gives us a great opportunity to continue this conversation.
Though none of us individually can solve all of the issues stated above, the most readily available resource that we can all contribute to young adult cancer survivors is
awareness
: that they are not alone, that there is a community of thousands of their peers that they can turn to, and that their future can be as bright as it was before their diagnosis. All cancer survivors, especially YAs, need to know that with their diagnosis comes the opportunity (and some may say responsibility) to develop and use essential skills like self-advocacy, especially regarding finances.
As Heidi Adams, CEO of
, put it in an
a couple of years back, we can’t change a healthcare system that doesn’t recognize young adults as a distinct group, and all too often fails to meet their needs, if we don’t focus on them—not as an afterthought to the general population of cancer survivors, but as the
only
thought. Thanks to widely-read recent articles and news stories, more people are learning that the costs of cancer extend far beyond the obvious (medical bills, insurance premiums, and co-pays) to include job loss, damaged credit, and repossession of personal belongings
—
but up until recently no one was talking about how these issues affected young adults.
So in the coming months, and during this week of Young Adult Cancer Awareness, here’s what you can do to be a positive force for change:
​
Most importantly, if you know a YA dealing with cancer, be there for them. Listen, try to understand what they’re going through, and be as supportive in as many ways as you can. Provide them with rides to treatment, help with housekeeping tasks, and research some resources that might be available to them.
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