Cancer Nonprofit Helps Younger Patients Find Their Community
Matthew Zachary noticed a gaping hole in the support and attention for cancer patients between the ages of 15 and 39, and he decided to do something about. And so, Stupid Cancer was born.
The Washington Post:
Stupid Cancer: The Nonprofit For Young Patients That Mixes Advocacy With Edge
Matthew Zachary has always been something of an angry rebel, naturally predisposed “to hate authority,” he says. In nursery school, he was expelled for biting the teacher and the principal because he didn’t like the sleeping mats. So when he got brain cancer as a college senior in 1995, he found plenty of things to get mad about. ... But what really infuriated him, and ultimately sent him in a new direction, was the federal report on adolescents and young adults with cancer that he read several years after doctors excised a golf-ball-size tumor from inside his head. The report’s key finding: Compared with other age groups, the 15-to-39 set was neglected and had gone decades with little to no improvement in survival rates. (McGinley, 4/28)