Personal Stories Archives - Cactus Cancer Society

Introducing: Lauren Morales!

We’re so excited to introduce our newest team member, Lauren Morales, LCSW! She is our Senior Program Coordinator, meaning you’ll be seeing her in tons of programs over the next few months, although you may have already met her as a community member. Read on to learn more about what brought Lauren to the Cactus Cancer Society Team. We know you’ll be joining her fan club, just like we have!

Hi community!

I’m so excited to be joining the Cactus Cancer team and to be a part of the mission to provide a safe space for YA’s navigating cancer. I know firsthand the importance of connecting with others during cancer because I’ve lived it!

At the age of 30, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and full-throttled into the world of oncology. At the time, I was living in North Carolina, having just moved there a few months prior due to my husband’s military orders. My husband is an active duty Marine and was deployed in another country when I was diagnosed. I struggled to navigate my diagnosis, not only because it was cancer, but I felt really alone in a new place with no local support.

Enter the AYA online community! I stumbled into the AYA space from Instagram and started to attend online programs once my treatment had begun. Finding other people who were my age learning to deal with cancer meant the world to me and reduced my isolation by tenfold, even once my husband was able to return home. In the online AYA space, I didn’t just find community, I made lifelong friends and started to rebuild hope in the process.

Once I reached NED, I felt called to take my experience into my professional work. I decided to further pivot my work in clinical social work to the oncology and chronic illness spaces. My background in social work, trauma therapy, and medical systems navigation has helped me to better articulate how important advocacy, creative coping, and safe community spaces are in creating fertile ground for healing, resilience, and empowerment. I am so excited to bring both my lived experience and my professional background into this role to help empower all of you in your healing journey, however that may look!

When I am not working, you can find me cuddled up with my two dogs, Rocky and Luna, who are the absolute apples of my eye. I love a good fantasy book, have some strong opinions on coffee consumption, and am a West Coast girlie at heart. I wouldn’t call myself an artist, but I love to be creative and have so much fun doing anything with acrylics or DIY holiday decor. I also really enjoy writing, specifically poetry, and all things Mexican food and sushi.

I can’t wait to jump in with all of you and want to thank you in advance for the honor of holding space with you while you navigate life with cancer, as a caregiver, or as a provider in oncology.

With gratitude,

Lauren Morales, LCSW

Pinky Promise: You Can Tell Us Your Secrets!

Holding on to a secret is hard. They can be complicated (love triangles!), emotionally fraught (feeling lost or scared), or just plain silly (craving kimchi every night during treatment). Want to let it off your chest, but not sure where to put it?

We have a brand new program at Cactus Cancer Society called Cancer Secrets! Here’s how it works. You write your secret on a postcard. It can be a beautiful, artistic rendering with your words on top, or it can be scribbled on the back of a receipt that you tape to a pre-existing postcard. However you choose to represent that secret is up to you! These are 100% anonymous. After you create your secret, you drop it in the mail to us at the address below:

Cancer Secrets
PO Box 282
Bordentown, NJ 08505

Once we receive your postcard, we will photograph it and share it on our social media accounts. Here’s where the magic begins: your secret is shared with other people. We’re willing to bet that folks to read your secret will feel a sense of connection, whether it is because they have the same or similar feelings, or because they are extending empathy to you. It’s way to let us laugh, cry, rage, or celebrate with you – anonymously, leaving nothing off the table.

So go ahead, grab that pen, and trust us with your secret. We can keep it: pinky promise.

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Progress with Prozac

After Facing Testicular Cancer, I Realized I Was Feeling Depressed – So I Asked For Antidepressants

cancer in your 20s cancer in your 20s and 30s cancer in your 30s depression mental health patient survivor young adult cancer

Surviving As A Caregiver

Though I’m a young adult cancer survivor, having been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the age of 24, I first heard the words ‘you have cancer’ said to my mother 2 years before my own diagnosis.

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Hi, My Name Is Aerial And I Have Anxiety.

The difference between Aerial today and Aerial from a decade ago is the management of my mental health. I have my “go-to” list that helps me get through moments of angst, like the middle of the night panics when all my friends are sleeping and my husband is snoring the night away.

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Peace Amidst Chaos

There are many things in life that we prepare for. We study or practice and hope that when the time comes, we are ready for whatever faces us. So, when something extreme happens to us, like being diagnosed with cancer, what preparation from our lives do we fall back on?

cancer in your 20s cancer in your 20s and 30s caregiver faith and spirituality family and friends patient survivor

Finding Grace Through Grief

The lesson I’ve learned from all of this tremendous grief is to show yourself some freaking grace. Give credit that your loved ones know how you feel, that the appreciation you have is known, and that while you’ll always wish for more time, it’s okay that things were left where they were.

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Survival Is Insufficient

Now there is scientific research showing that the young adult cancer population, aged 18-39, is the most isolated age-group who experiences cancer, and that this isolation is linked to all sorts of quality of life issues. It affects survival rates, reintegration into normal life, and a host of other things. There is data showing that surviving cancer is not enough, we must also be helped to thrive. There is data showing that survival is insufficient.

cancer in your 20s cancer in your 20s and 30s caregiver caregivers family and friends patient survivor survivorship young adult cancer

Why I Stayed Away From Survivors

It wasn’t just denial and triggers and caricatures that got in the way of me connecting. It was the idea of being friends with people who were much more likely, statistically, to die earlier than normal, and to have very difficult things happen to them. It was the risk that everyone I knew was weighing with me: how closely do I want to be entwined with that kind of hard?

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Lacuna Loft Featured In Smile Politely

Lacuna Loft was recently featured in Smile Politely, Champaign-Urbana’s online magazine. The whole interview process was a lot of fun (Thanks Katie!) and we hope that the article helps to share some of the cool stuff that we are doing here, over at Lacuna Loft!

To check out the article, click here!

Lacuna Loft News