We’re Turning 11 — And You’re Invited 🎉🌵

Eleven years ago, Cactus Cancer Society launched as a nonprofit with a simple but radical belief: Survival is insufficient.  Young adults facing cancer deserve more than survival.  They deserve connection, creativity, and community. Since then, thousands of young adults have joined us in art workshops, writing workshops, book clubs of all varieties, LEGO-building sessions, and brave conversations where anxiety lessened, isolation softened, and voices were validated, uplifted, and empowered. This year, we’re celebrating 11 years of impact in the most “Cactus” way we know how: an all-day celebration of creativity, community, and connection. We have 4 ways we can celebrate together!

1. Join the Birthday Celebration

At the heart of it all is our online birthday celebration, a 5-hour creative fundraiser happening Saturday, April 18th (9 am–2 pm PT / 11 am–4 pm CT / 12 pm–5 pm ET). Throughout the day, you’ll join four live, hour-long art tutorials led by Cactus Cancer Society staff. These sessions are welcoming and low-pressure, whether you’re brand new to art or ready to try something different. You’ll explore creative drills in the Constraints Lab with Lauren Morales, LCSW; design exotic monster plants with Aerial Donovan; paint watercolor landscapes with Mallory Casperson; and close with origami lotus flowers. We’ll also announce the Young Adult Advocate of the Year (YAAY), close out the birthday auction, and spend time in real connection with community. This isn’t just a virtual event. It’s a space to make something, feel something, and be part of something.

Ticket Options:

  • $50 — Live Event Access
    Full access to the 5-hour celebration, including all tutorials and the award presentation

  • $75 — Live Event + Bonus Creative Guide (PDF)
    Includes a beautifully designed guide with prompts, supply lists, and ways to keep creating afterward

  • $150 — Live Event + Guide + Supply Box
    Includes everything above, plus a curated supply box with over 25 materials (valued at $200+) so you can follow along in real time

  • $250 — Birthday Champion
    Includes everything above, plus recognition during the event as a Birthday Champion supporter

Every ticket helps fund free creative coping programs for young adults navigating cancer. Get your ticket 

 2. Bid in the Birthday Auction

In the days leading up to the celebration, we’ll host an online art auction featuring work by members of our young adult cancer community. Each piece carries its own story, moments, and meaning beyond the canvas. This is art supporting art. Every bid helps us continue offering free, creative coping programs for young adults impacted by cancer. The auction will close during the live celebration, so join us to catch the final moments and celebrate alongside the artists.

More details coming soon! 

 3. Give a Birthday Gift

If attending isn’t in the cards for you, you can still be part of this. A birthday gift directly supports free creative programs, peer connection, and survivor-led spaces for young adults facing cancer. It helps ensure that someone logging in from an infusion chair, from recovery, or from a moment of uncertainty finds a place where they can exhale and be met with care.

Give a birthday gift 

 4. Support YAAY (Young Adult Advocate of the Year)

This year’s Young Adult Advocate of the Year candidates are thoughtful, driven individuals working to change what support looks like for young adults with cancer. Over the coming weeks, supporters will “vote” with their dollars to help select this year’s advocate. It’s not just a competition. It’s a way to uplift voices, share stories, and fund programs that make a real difference.

Learn more & support a candidate

Thank You For Being Here 

This celebration is about more than a milestone. It’s about everything that has been built over the past eleven years, the art made in hard seasons, the conversations that helped someone feel seen, the moments where isolation softened just a little. It’s about what happens when creativity becomes a coping tool, and community shows up in real ways.

However you choose to take part, whether you join us live, bid on a piece, support an advocate, or give what you can, you are part of what makes this possible. We’re so grateful you’re here, and we can’t wait to celebrate together.



Through the Lens: Young Adult Cancer Survivors Share Their Stories in a National Photo Exhibit

Cancer stories are often told in tidy arcs or in medicalized language. Diagnosis. Treatment. Ring the bell. Survivor. Move forward.

Young adult survivors, patients, caregivers, and co-survivors know it rarely works that way.

Life within and after cancer can be messy, quiet, complicated, funny, exhausting, beautiful, and uncertain all at once. It can mean navigating work, school, parenting, and relationships while balancing chemotherapy, surgery, or radiation. It can mean celebrating no progression of disease while still carrying the burden of scanxiety and frequent oncology appointments. It can mean holding grief and gratitude in one hand or rebuilding a sense of identity when the person you were before cancer feels lost. 

The Through the Lens: Life Beyond Young Adult Cancer Photovoice Exhibit invites the public into those realities. This exhibit is part of the Through the Lens national campaign, a creative and research initiative developed by the School of Social Work at Colorado State University and curated by members of the Serious Illness and End-of-Life Narratives Lab alongside the Through the Lens Young Adult Advisory Board.

Through the Lens features artwork from 16 young adult cancer survivors across the country, bringing together photography, personal narratives, paintings, and poetry that explore what survivorship actually looks like for young adults. Instead of statistics or medical explanations, these stories come directly from the people who have lived them. The result is an exhibit that feels less like a gallery and more like a collection of lived, tender moments, showcasing the art and perspectives of young adults with cancer. 

When Survivors Hold the Camera

At the heart of this project is a creative storytelling method called photovoice. Photovoice invites people to document their own lived experiences through photography, poetry, art, and narrative. Instead of having their stories interpreted by researchers or clinicians, participants choose the moments, objects, and images that best represent their lives. For young adults navigating cancer, that kind of storytelling can be deeply powerful. It allows survivors to reclaim authorship of their experiences and share perspectives often overlooked in traditional cancer narratives. Through their art, they advocate for equitable cancer care for young adults. 

The goals of the exhibit reflect that intention.

The project seeks to increase awareness of the psychosocial impact that young adult cancer can have on identity, relationships, and developmental milestones. It amplifies the wisdom of survivors as they navigate meaning-making and rebuilding purpose. And it highlights the complex uncertainty many young adults carry long after treatment ends.

The Stories Behind Art

Credit: Colorado State University, Photovoice Exhibit Artist: Tabitha

Walking through the exhibit means stepping into deeply personal moments.

Some images capture the intensity of treatment. 

One artist shares a self-portrait taken beside a bedside table overflowing with prescription bottles and scattered medications. The photograph reflects the exhausting routine of managing symptoms and navigating a flood of treatments while already living with chronic illness.

Some photographs hold quiet spaces for reflection. 

Credit: Colorado State University, Photovoice Exhibit. Artist: April

One survivor shares images of Lake Michigan, a place she drives to on difficult days to sit with the water and reset. 

Several artists explore grief and legacy. 

Credit: Colorado State University, Photovoice Exhibit. Artist: Aerial

One photograph shows a shoreline once shared with both of the artist’s parents, who passed away from cancer. In a second image, the landscape remains the same, but the figures are gone. The absence speaks as loudly as their presence once did.

Across the exhibit, there is a shared honesty that many young adult survivors will recognize immediately. Life after cancer does not follow a single narrative. One of the most powerful elements of the exhibit is its honesty in portraying the emotional terrain that young adults often navigate after treatment. Several artists describe the feeling of living with a shadow that never quite lifts. Even on days when life feels joyful or ordinary, there can still be a quiet awareness of follow-up scans, lingering side effects, and the possibility of recurrence.

Others explore the complicated process of rebuilding identity. Who are you after cancer? How do you integrate the person you were before diagnosis with the person you have become through the experience? These are questions many survivors continue asking for years.

The exhibit does not attempt to resolve those questions. Instead, it creates space for them to exist. It offers room for these experiences to be seen, held, and empathically witnessed. In many ways, the artwork gently turns the question back toward the viewer.

Will you bear witness to the truth of our experiences?

Creativity as a Way Through

Many of the artists describe creativity as part of their healing process.

Photography, painting, and storytelling offered a way to slow down and reflect during recovery. One artist shares how creating art helped quiet the judgmental voice that often demanded perfection, allowing space to simply exist.

Another artist describes photography as a way to document moments during treatment that felt surreal or impossible to explain. Capturing those moments created a form of proof that the experience was real, something they could return to later to better understand what they had lived through.

Creative expression does not erase the hardship of cancer. But it can offer language, especially when words fall short, for emotions that are difficult to name. For many young adults with cancer, art becomes both a coping tool and a form of meaning-making in its own right.

The Team Behind Through The Lens

The Through the Lens intervention and national photo exhibit were developed by a team of researchers and oncology social workers at the School of Social Work at Colorado State University, dedicated to amplifying the voices of young adults living with cancer.

The project is led by Dr. Jen Currin-McCulloch, an Associate Professor of Social Work at Colorado State University. Her career has focused on oncology and palliative care, with a particular interest in the ways people find hope and meaning while living with serious illness.

Through her clinical work in hospital settings, Dr. Currin-McCulloch often met young adults navigating cancer who shared that medical conversations rarely included the parts of life that still brought them joy or purpose. That observation became the spark for creating a space where young adults could explore those questions together.

See the Exhibit in Fort Collins

The Through the Lens: Life Beyond Young Adult Cancer photo exhibit will be on display in Fort Collins, Colorado, this April.

Exhibit Hours
April 8 to April 12
12:00 PM to 6:00 PM MST

Reception
Saturday, April 11
3:00 PM to 5:00 PM MST

Location
Center for Creativity
200 Mathews St
Fort Collins, CO 80524

Visitors are invited to explore the artwork, reflect on the stories behind the images, and engage with the many ways young adults navigate life after cancer.

Organizations interested in bringing the traveling exhibit to their own community can inquire through the Through the Lens website or contact Dr. Jen Currin-McCulloch at Colorado State University at jen.currin_mcculloch@colostate.edu or call (970) 391-4941. 

What It Means to Witness

Many young adult cancer survivors spend years explaining their experiences to people who have never lived through them. This exhibit offers a different invitation.

Instead of simplifying those stories, Through the Lens allows them to exist in their full complexity. Through the lens of these artists, we are invited not just to look, but to truly see what life beyond young adult cancer can hold.

To learn more, please visit: Colorado State University Photovoice Exhibit

When Coping Gets Complicated: Substance Use & Addiction

Let’s be honest, cancer can push you to your limits. Between the fear, pain, fatigue, and endless “unknowns,” it’s no wonder so many people turn to whatever helps them get through the day. Maybe that’s a nightly drink to take the edge off. Maybe it’s pain medication that slowly became part of your routine. Maybe it’s something else entirely.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone and you’re not a failure for coping the best way you could at the time.

The truth is, substance use among people affected by cancer is more common than most realize. Research shows that young adults who’ve experienced cancer or trauma are at higher risk for developing patterns of problematic use (NIDA, 2020). Sometimes it starts as symptom relief; sometimes as a distraction from the emotional weight. But when that coping starts to feel like control is slipping, it’s a signal for compassion, not shame.

Coping, Not Character

Substance use is often misunderstood as a moral issue, but really, it’s a coping strategy, one that might have helped at first but now feels harder to manage. For many survivors and caregivers, it’s not about “getting high” or “checking out”; it’s about quieting the storm inside.

You might recognize yourself in one (or more) of these:

  • Feeling dependent on substances to sleep or calm down

     

  • Needing more of something to feel the same effect

     

  • Worrying about how much you’re using, but feel scared to stop

     

  • Hiding your use from people you love

     

  • Feeling guilt or shame, but not sure what to do next

     

If you’re nodding along, please know that this isn’t a moral failure. It’s a human response to extraordinary stress. Healing starts with curiosity, not self-judgment.

The Link Between Cancer, Pain, and Substance Use

Cancer and its treatments can cause chronic pain, fatigue, and insomnia. These are all major triggers for substance use. Prescription opioids, sleep aids, or even cannabis can provide relief, but they also come with risk. When your pain is both physical and emotional, it’s easy for the boundaries to blur.

That’s why trauma-informed addiction care is so important for survivors and caregivers. The right provider won’t shame you for how you’ve coped, they’ll help you understand why and offer healthier ways forward.

Therapies like Motivational Interviewing (MI), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Harm Reduction approaches focus on meeting people where they are, not demanding perfection or abstinence. 

Finding Help That Feels Safe

Support doesn’t have to mean rehab or labels. It can start small. It can be a conversation with your doctor, a text to a helpline, or joining a harm-reduction group online.

Here are some trusted, nonjudgmental resources that offer information and support:

HAMS (Harm Reduction for Alcohol) — hams.cc

A supportive online community for people who want to reduce, moderate, or quit drinking. No judgment, no pressure — just practical tools and harm-reduction education.

Moderation Management — moderation.org

A non-abstinence-based peer program offering group meetings, online forums, and self-assessment tools for people seeking to cut back on alcohol.

Partnership to End Addiction — drugfree.org

Resources, education, and family support for young people and loved ones navigating substance use or recovery.

SAMHSA National Helpline — findtreatment.gov | 1-800-662-HELP (4357)

A 24/7, free, and confidential treatment referral and information service in English and Spanish. Great starting point for finding local or virtual programs.

SMART Recovery — smartrecovery.org

A science-based recovery community using cognitive-behavioral tools and group support for people seeking to change their relationship with substances.

Harm Reduction: Meeting Yourself with Kindness

Harm reduction means focusing on safety and self-compassion, not punishment. It’s about making small changes that lower risk while respecting your autonomy. That might look like:

  • Tracking your use without judgment

     

  • Setting limits that feel doable

     

  • Choosing safer methods or times

     

  • Pairing use with mindfulness, hydration, or nourishment

     

  • Talking to a doctor or therapist before quitting suddenly

     

If you relapse or slip, that doesn’t erase your progress. Healing isn’t about “getting it right”; it’s about staying connected to your own humanity.

Reaching Out Without Shame

Talking about substance use can feel scary, especially in cancer communities where vulnerability already runs high. But connection heals! Whether it’s a friend, a peer mentor, or a helpline counselor, telling someone “I’m struggling” is a powerful act of courage.

If you’re unsure where to start, Cactus Cancer Society’s Mental Health & Peer Support Resource Hub includes harm-reduction and recovery organizations that approach healing with compassion and inclusion.

You deserve care that doesn’t judge you.

You Are Not Alone

Recovery, whatever that looks like for you, doesn’t have to mean perfection. It can mean curiosity, self-respect, and a little more freedom each day.

If you’re coping in ways that no longer feel like support, reach out. There are people who get it and want to help you find your footing again.

You are not “too far gone.” You are not broken. You are doing your best, and that’s where healing starts. 💛

Ask Perrie: Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

Hi Perrie,

I’m about to turn 30 in two weeks, and I’ve been in remission from stage 3 triple-positive breast cancer for two and a half years now. I always struggled with taking care of myself before cancer, and now in survivorship, I struggle with the fear of losing my job due to the chronic issues I have now. I was fired while in active treatment at a different job, so it’s hard not to think it could happen again for something as minor as me having to call in sick two days in a row. Do you have any advice on how to handle that fear or advice on how to better advocate and take care of myself? 

Thank you

Dear Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop,

Survivorship is full of polarities. There’s a push of “you should be all better now” and a pull of “I’m anything but better now.” Let’s make space for where you really are. I’m hearing that you’re juggling chronic illness, maybe even chronic pain, while also trying to take care of yourself, be an adult, pay bills, and show up as an employee. That’s a lot, and I’m probably only touching the surface!

Job insecurity carries real risk, and I don’t want to diminish or invalidate that, especially since you’ve already lived through losing a job during treatment. At the same time, I can hear how the fear of it happening again is starting to get in the way of day-to-day things like taking breaks when you need them, calling out sick, or advocating for yourself.

Giving yourself permission to take care of your body starts from within, and that often begins with self-compassion. You mentioned that caring for yourself was already hard before cancer entered the room. Survivorship can be an opportunity to gently renegotiate that relationship with yourself. Developing more self-understanding and compassion may help you rebuild trust in your own needs and limits.

If you’re open to exploring this, I’d recommend looking into the work of Kristin Neff, who researches and teaches self-compassion. Her workbook, guided meditations, and free online resources can be a helpful starting place: https://self-compassion.org/. Practicing self-compassion regularly can slowly help retrain your brain to respond with kindness toward yourself in moments of overwhelm instead of criticism or fear.

Speaking of fear, what you’re describing can also be deeply connected to anxiety. Your brain is doing what brains do best: trying to predict outcomes in order to keep you safe. The trouble is that sometimes that protective system goes into overdrive. Which, let’s be real, makes sense inside of cancer because you’ve really been through it! 

When you notice fear (whether that’s job loss or any other kind) rising, I’d encourage you to approach it with curiosity rather than judgment. That might sound counterintuitive, because most of us want to avoid fear as quickly as possible. But curiosity can help you gather important information about what you actually need in those moments.

For example, you might notice that fear shows up physically, maybe your breathing gets shallow, or your body feels restless. In that case, regulating your body through breathing or grounding exercises might help. Or maybe fear pulls you into spiraling thoughts and worst-case scenarios (honestly, relatable). In those moments, it may help to gently redirect your thinking or talk through those fears with someone you trust.

And if the fear continues to feel overwhelming, working with a qualified therapist can help navigate those patterns.

As far as advocacy goes, I want to say this clearly: advocating for your needs isn’t selfish. It isn’t a sign that you’re unreliable. It’s part of taking care of yourself so that you can keep showing up in your life and work.

If workplace accommodations might be helpful for you, I also want to point you toward a nonprofit called Cancer and Careers, which provides excellent guidance on navigating employment after cancer. They offer resources on things like intermittent FMLA, flexible work arrangements, and understanding your rights in the workplace: https://www.cancerandcareers.org/en/at-work/back-to-work-after-cancer

The truth is that we live in a culture that often prioritizes productivity and hustle over wellness and balance. Protecting your health may sometimes mean learning how to ask for flexibility or support.

At its heart, a lot of what we’re talking about here is rebuilding trust with yourself. Survivorship, and maybe even this upcoming 30th birthday, can be an invitation to try something new: listening to your body and honoring its limits, even when fear tells you there might be consequences.

You deserve a life that includes stability, self-compassion, and room to heal at your own pace.

Standing with you as you learn to take up space,
Perrie

Ask Perrie is Cactus Cancer Society’s advice column for the questions young adult cancer doesn’t come with instructions for. Community members submit anonymous questions, and Perrie offers thoughtful guidance, perspective, and practical ideas for navigating life during and after cancer.

submit your own question!

Ask Perrie: Stuck In the Freeze

Dear Perrie,

Ever since cancer, I’ve been paralyzed by procrastination. There are so many things that need to be done that I just can’t do any of them. The phone calls, bills, having to talk to people about why the statement I got is wrong- it’s all too much. How do I move past this? I need to deal with these things head-on, but can’t bring myself to do any of it. 

I’m tired and overwhelmed.

Dear Stuck in the Freeze,

First, I want to name that what I’m hearing in your question isn’t just procrastination. Yes, you might be avoiding important tasks, but when we’re in fight-or-flight mode (fight, flight, freeze, or fawn), our nervous system sometimes tries to protect us from overwhelm by doing exactly what you described: freezing.

When that happens, it can become hard to think clearly. You might avoid tasks, numb out, or feel like you aren’t even fully present when these things are being discussed with you. That doesn’t mean you’re lazy or failing; it means your nervous system has been under a lot of pressure (and like….duh, Perrie….. Cancer is hard!)

So my guidance for moving through this starts with something simple: notice the freeze. The more awareness you can bring to those moments when you feel yourself shutting down, avoiding, or checking out, the easier it becomes to gently move through them. The first step really is awareness, as they say. 

You might start paying attention to how your body, thoughts, and emotions show up when you’re facing these tasks. Do you feel tension? Brain fog? A sudden urge to walk away or hide under your covers? Slowing down and getting curious about those reactions can help you respond with a little more compassion toward yourself.

From there, this becomes a divide-and-conquer situation. We’re not meant to handle hard things (or heal) alone. If you have access to a support system (friends, family, church members, online cancer buddies, etc.), consider reaching out for help. There’s no shame in letting someone shoulder a bit of the burden.

For example, someone might help organize bills into a spreadsheet, sit with you while you make calls, or help you figure out where to start. Sometimes just having another person nearby can make a task feel far less overwhelming.

If you don’t have that kind of support available right now, you might ask your medical team about connecting with a social worker or nurse case manager. Many oncology teams or insurance plans can help connect patients to someone who can assist with billing issues, financial programs, or simply advocate on their behalf. Having a professional in your corner can make a huge difference.

And finally, when in doubt: one call at a time.

Big mountains look impossible when we try to climb them all at once. Instead of focusing on every task waiting for you, see if you can bring your attention to the next smallest step. Just one. Giving yourself permission to handle the rest later (and maybe even tell yourself that’s a problem for future me!) can lower the overwhelm enough for your brain to move forward with one time. Do that practice enough and you might find that you’ve completed 3-5 next steps!  

You don’t have to solve everything today. One step is still movement.

Rooting for you,

Perrie

SUBMIT YOUR OWN QUESTION

Ask Perrie is Cactus Cancer Society’s advice column for the questions young adult cancer doesn’t come with instructions for. Community members submit anonymous questions, and Perrie offers thoughtful guidance, perspective, and practical ideas for navigating life during and after cancer.

You Belong Here: LGBTQIA+ Cancer & Mental Health Support

Being a young adult with cancer is already complicated. Add being LGBTQIA+, and it can feel like an entirely different universe of isolation. Whether it’s navigating healthcare systems that weren’t built with you in mind, worrying about finding affirming providers, or just trying to hold your identity steady through treatment….it’s a lot.

But here’s the truth: you don’t have to shrink yourself to fit into the cancer world. You deserve care that sees all of you: your queerness, your pronouns, your partnerships, your body, your story, and honors it.

When Cancer Intersects with Identity

For LGBTQIA+ young adults, cancer care can stir up layers of stress that most providers never think about. You might worry about being misgendered in the exam room, having to out yourself to every new nurse, or finding a therapist who understands your identity. These are not small things; they shape whether you feel safe seeking care at all.

The research backs it up: LGBTQIA+ patients are more likely to experience discrimination, mental health distress, and barriers to culturally competent care in cancer settings (Power et al., 2022).

Mental health support that affirms your identity isn’t a luxury; it’s a lifeline. Whether that means talking to a queer therapist, joining a peer group, or finding LGBTQIA+ cancer spaces online, connection helps heal the parts that medical systems often miss.

The Emotional Load No One Warns You About

Cancer doesn’t hit in a vacuum. It can resurface old wounds like rejection, invisibility, trauma. Especially if you’ve spent years fighting to be seen for who you are. Hospital gowns, gendered spaces, fertility conversations, and even body changes from treatment can stir up complicated feelings about identity and autonomy.

That’s why finding spaces where you can show up fully yourself is essential. Not just to process cancer, but to rest from the exhaustion of explaining yourself over and over again.

And those spaces do exist. Below are some of the most affirming LGBTQIA+ mental health and cancer-specific resources available right now.

LGBTQIA+ Cancer & Mental Health Resources

Escape — escapeya.org

A grassroots community that offers safe, peer-led spaces and resources for LGBTQI2+ adolescents and young adults navigating cancer. Their programs are built around belonging and community care.

National LGBT Cancer Network — cancer-network.org

One of the leading voices in queer-inclusive cancer advocacy, research, and education. They provide support resources, training for providers, and policy work to make cancer care safer for LGBTQ+ patients.

NQTTCN (National Queer & Trans Therapists of Color Network) — nqttcn.com

A powerful directory and healing justice network centering queer and trans people of color. You can find affirming therapists or community healing spaces that reflect lived experience and cultural nuance.

OutCare Health — outcarehealth.org

A national directory of LGBTQ+-affirming healthcare providers. Search by specialty, location, and identity to find doctors, therapists, and clinics that prioritize inclusive care.

The Trevor Project — thetrevorproject.org

Call 866-488-7386 or text START to 678678. The Trevor Project provides 24/7 crisis intervention and suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ youth ages 13–24. Their counselors are trained, compassionate, and affirming — whether you’re in crisis or just need someone to talk to.

Trans Lifeline — translifeline.org

Call 877-565-8860 for peer-run, direct emotional support from trans community members who’ve been there. No gatekeeping, no assumptions — just real, affirming connection.

 Building Safety and Connection

Finding the right support often means unlearning the idea that you have to educate your helpers first. You shouldn’t have to explain your pronouns, your identity, or your relationship structure before getting care. The right therapist or peer space will already speak your language.

Here are a few tips for finding affirming mental health support:

  • Look for shared identity or allyship. Directories like NQTTCN, OutCare, and Inclusive Therapists make this easy.

  • Be upfront about what you need. It’s okay to ask potential therapists: “Have you worked with LGBTQIA+ clients?” or “How do you create a safe space for trans and non-binary folks?”

  • Connect through peer spaces. Programs like Escape and The Dinner Party’s LGBTQ+ tables offer non-clinical, community-based support.

  • Trust your gut. If you feel unseen, you can leave. If you feel understood, you’ll know.

You Deserve Affirming Care

Your queerness, your story, and your body all belong in your healing journey. There’s no one right way to do survivorship, and there’s no one right kind of support. The goal isn’t perfection or positivity; it’s fertile ground for resilience and healing. The right kind of support will set you up with a nourishing space to feel grounded and seen. 

If you’re ready to find an affirming therapist, group, or community, explore our LGBTQIA+ Cancer & Mental Health Resources directory on the Cactus Cancer website. You’ll find links, programs, and organizations that celebrate who you are, not just what you’ve been through.

You don’t have to edit yourself to heal. You don’t have to do this alone. You belong here, exactly as you are. 🌈



Three Things Young Adult Cancer Patients Tell Us All the Time

After more than a decade of working with young adults impacted by cancer, certain themes show up again and again. The diagnoses vary. Treatment paths look different. Life circumstances shift. Each experience is as unique as our young adults. But the emotional and physical aftereffects many young adults describe are remarkably consistent. The research backs this up. Research on adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivorship highlights three of the most common long-term challenges: fatigue, fear of recurrence, and anxiety.

At Cactus Cancer Society, those same three themes come up in conversations and virtual groups with young adults across treatment, survivorship, metastatic disease, and long-term care. Here are some of the things we hear. 

1. “I’m exhausted, and no one seems to get it.”

Cancer-related fatigue isn’t just feeling tired. It’s the kind of exhaustion that doesn’t reset with sleep and often doesn’t show up clearly in labs or scans.

For young adults, fatigue collides with work expectations, school, dating, parenting, and the pressure to “get back to normal.” Many people tell us they feel misunderstood when their energy doesn’t match what others expect. This is especially true in survivorship, where there may be a societal expectation to “be back to normal now.”

What we see again and again is that fatigue isn’t something people can simply push through. It requires support that is flexible, validating, and realistic for people trying to live full lives alongside cancer.

2. “What if I relapse?”

A second theme we see in our groups is around fear of recurrence. Fear of recurrence is one of the most widely documented psychological aftereffects of cancer, and for good reason. It’s not irrational. It’s rooted in lived experience, ongoing symptoms, and the uncertainty that often comes with living life inside of cancer. 

For some young adults, that fear is consistent throughout treatment, for others, it surfaces years after treatment ends. For many, it remains part of daily life, especially for those living with metastatic or chronic cancer. 

3. “My brain won’t turn off.”

Anxiety is another experience young adult cancer patients name again and again in our online spaces. It can show up as racing thoughts, hypervigilance about symptoms, difficulty sleeping, or a constant sense that something might be wrong. Anxiety around scans is so common that young adults have coined the term “scanxiety” to illustrate the pattern of anxiety that arrives around scans. Sometimes that anxiety is tied to scans or medical appointments. Sometimes it shows up in everyday life—at work, in relationships, or when planning for the future.

For many young adults, anxiety isn’t just about cancer itself. It’s about the ripple effects cancer creates in identity, relationships, finances, and long-term planning.

So We Built a CE Course Around It

The Art of Survivorship is an on-demand continuing education course designed for social workers and helping professionals who support young adult cancer patients and survivors.

The course centers on the three aftereffects that research and lived experience consistently highlight for young adults with cancer:

  • Fatigue

  • Fear of recurrence

  • Anxiety

Rather than treating these as isolated symptoms, the course explores how they evolve across the cancer continuum and intersect with identity, access to care, culture, and life stage. We bring our experience in the creative coping space to help providers navigate these aftereffects and provide tools to young adults who might be saying, “I’m not sure what to say.” For many cancer survivors, their experiences can be hard to articulate. Creative coping and therapeutic art offer another way in. These practical tools offer regulation, expression, and meaning-making when words fall short. 

Over seven and a half hours, participants learn through:

  • Oncology social worker–led education

  • Survivor-led panels that center lived experience

  • Demonstrations of creative coping tools that can realistically fit into clinical and community settings

If This Sounds Familiar

If you work with young adult cancer patients and have ever thought:

  • “I see this all the time, but I’m not sure how to support them.”

  • “I wish I had more tools for this.”

  • “How do I help my clients use these tools outside of session?”

You’re not alone. And this course was built with you in mind! Register using the link below or share with a social worker who is looking to learn more about navigating these after effects with their patients. 

Learn more about The Art of Survivorship




Enter the Awkward Zone: YAAY 2026 and the Power of Advocacy

It’s March!

 

As you probably know, this month has a lot of things going on – St. Patrick’s Day (the 17th), Read Across America Day (the 2nd), and during this entire month, nominees will be raising money for the Young Adult Cancer Advocate of the Year (YAAY) award!

 

If you didn’t see the nominees, they are:
Mursal Bayaz

Clinton Endeche (Billy)

Tris Grady

Ben McGuerty & Olivia Tai

McKenzie Million 

Samantha Moreno-Ulibarri

Cody Morrison

Janelle Moxley

Emily Recco

Sarah Ross McHenry

 

Yes, I am a nominee again! I will be honest with you guys – I did not expect to be selected! I was expecting a whole new slate of great advocates to be chosen to raise money for Cactus Cancer. However, when I got the email, I had to accept the nomination.

You might be wondering why I accepted it, given my expecting it to be all new people? It’s simple: if you have a voice, if you have a platform, if you have a good story, why not use it? I raised a lot of money last year – $15,513 – I went in expecting to maybe raise $1,000, even though I set my goal at $5,000, I did that just to have an even number of “enough money to pay for 100 kits for workshops”, never expecting to get anywhere near that.

Then I kept getting email after email, notifying me of donations. Soon I sped past $1,000, then $3,000, then I hit $5,000, and even higher and higher (down to the last minute! I had something like 15 donations in the final 15 minutes!) – the amount of supporters I had shocked me. I ended up raising enough to pay for 310 kits! 

Over the past year, since my win, I have had a pretty decent year – I have met up with cancer friends and done some fun things (antiquing, trivia nights, eating tasty food, and other activities). I decided to reach out to my fellow YAAY winner (and friend!) Ashley Landi, and asked her for advice on everyone’s fundraising. She gave me the following advice: “It can be awkward and uncomfortable to ask people for money. Put yourself out there as much as you can because you never know how far of a reach you’ll be able to attain.”

So, if you want to raise money, you need to leave your comfort zone and enter the Awkward Zone!

However, I will tell you that advocacy is hard – you’re putting yourself out there. You are laying yourself bare for the world at large. You are deciding to go completely public with your diagnosis for anyone to find – be it your fifth-grade teacher or your elementary school bully, your work will be one of the first things to show up online about you (…depending on how common your name is). If you are going to tell your story, if you want to become an advocate, you need to craft your story – you want the genuine you to be felt in every word. As an advocate, you want people to feel what you feel and be able to walk in your shoes. You want them to know how the cause you are advocating for makes you feel – make your emotions felt, don’t be cold and clinical like your doctors are when talking about your cancer.

YAAY is about telling your story and spreading the message of Cactus Cancer’s mission. So I have told you guys my story, and you can read the stories of my fellow nominees on their pages, so I reached out to them asking them a question: “So, you’re participating in the YAAY. People know about our cancer experiences from our pages, and some might know us from the YA community at large. What’s something they might not know that you want to share? Maybe one of your hobbies, a TV show you’re enjoying, a song you can’t get out of your head, whatever comes to your mind!”

Janelle: “Lately, I’ve been watching The Traitors and The Beauty. I’m also watching Vanderpump Rules for the first time and really enjoying it! Some new songs I have been listening to are “I Don’t Think It’s The Right Time for Emojis” by Hot Mulligan, “Growing Up” by Hilary Duff, and “Gut Punch” by Nick Jonas. The elder emo in me always goes back to listening to old Taking Back Sunday, Fall Out Boy, and Dashboard Confessional, though! I enjoy aerial flow yoga classes and Broadway shows/musicals in my free time. I saw “Dear Evan Hansen” last week at a local theater and “Stereophonic” in downtown Chicago earlier this month.”

Tris: “Something people might not know about me is that I’ve been trying to share my Puerto Rican roots over the last few years with my husband and daughter. I’m half Puerto Rican on my mom’s side, and after losing her last year, I’ve been trying to make more of an effort to share the culture, not only because it’s played such a big part of my life, but because it’s up to me to pass that down to my daughter. We’ve visited the island as often as we can – we most recently were there last summer for Bad Bunny’s residency! I’ve been learning to make some new recipes, reading up on the history of the island, and brushing up on my Spanish (I’m unfortunately a no sabo kid IYKYK).”

Emily: “Something people might not know? I still laugh. A lot. My life is not all heavy conversations and medical terms. There are dance parties in the kitchen, messy school mornings, and moments where cancer feels like background noise instead of the headline. I don’t want cancer to be my whole identity. It’s part of my story — but it’s not the whole book.”

Ben & Olivia: “Olivia and I were lucky enough to work in Hawai’i for six weeks in the summer of 2022. We had such an amazing time, and since then, have made it a point to try and experience more with each trip back. We had our wedding on the Big Island. We have done just about every hike at Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park. We had been up and down and all over the island. However, we had never been lucky enough to be on the island during a volcanic eruption. That is, until our most recent trip. 

We arrived on the island on January 22nd. On the morning of the 24th, there was a little lava visibly overflowing from the vents on the park’s volcano cams, so we started the two-hour drive across the island to see our first eruption. When we were getting close to the park, we could see crazy clouds and colors rising in a dark column. As we arrived at the entrance, ash and pieces of tephra (light pieces of lava, ranging in size from pebbles to beach balls) were falling in the area like new snow. From the overlook at Volcano House, we were able to see two separate 1,500 feet-tall fountains of lava.

It was easily the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life. We felt pure joy and adrenaline. Many amazing things happened to us in the past three years of cancer, but those took place amidst crisis and in spite of despair. The natural display of a volcano erupting mirrored our internal release of all the trauma and grief from these three years. We’re still buzzing from the high of the experience, and can’t wait to return to one of our favorite places on Earth.”

Samantha: “Something that everyone may not know about me is that at the age of 30, I had already been skiing for 28 years. My parents decided to start teaching me at 18 months old, so I basically learned it while I learned to walk, and I still love to do it to this day. I assume this long history with the mountains is why I love and miss them so much – whether I’m skiing, hiking, or just basking in their glory, the mountains are my favorite place to be!”

Sarah: “One thing that many people may not know about me is my involvement in the realm of childhood cancer. When I was younger, as a survivor, I had no clue as to the support that had been created for children with cancer. It was not until after my young adult diagnosis and becoming involved in the AYA population. I had never even met another childhood cancer survivor. When attending CancerCon (a conference for AYA cancer) a few years ago, while in conversation with a volunteer with whom I shared that I was a pediatric neuroblastoma survivor, she told me that she actually knew another survivor of neuroblastoma. Through that person, I was put into contact with my now good friend Mariah, who made a huge difference in my life, and through her, I became involved with the Coalition Against Childhood Cancer (which is an awesome organization).  Not long after meeting Mariah, I quickly became involved in CAC2, and have been able to digitally volunteer for the Toolkit that they created, as well as work on other projects that they are doing. Being able to finally meet other pediatric survivors as well as become involved and help, has made a huge positive impact on my life. Two of my all-time favorite bands are Mumford and Sons and Florence and the Machine. I am not one for loud places, especially the slightly chaotic environment of a concert. So far, those have been my two ‘bucket list’ concerts. As Mumford and Sons had broken up a while back, I didn’t think I would get the chance to see them. That changed as they went back out on tour last year, and I was able to go. It would be safe to say that Florence and the Machine is my favorite band, and their music really helped me during my leukemia diagnosis and treatments. I am very excited as I will finally be seeing them live later this year. “

For me, one of my hobbies is genealogy – family history. If you are interested in genealogy and want to learn how to do it, it’s easier than you’d think! You don’t need to pay to do it – not even a free trial somewhere! You can make a free account on Ancestry.com (you do not need a free trial!) and make a tree that is private and unsearchable, then you go to FamilySearch.org and use that to research. For Americans, start out by looking at people who you know were alive in 1949 or earlier – they should be in the 1950 Federal Census. Then you go back from there.

In terms of music? I have been listening to MUSCLE MEMORY by BLÜ EYES (check out her other songs, they might resonate with you – she’s a chronically ill musician) and whatever Spotify has put on my Discover Weekly, Release Radar, and Daylists.

Need a TV show? I’ve been watching The Pitt and Hacks. In case you haven’t seen The Pitt, it’s a medical show that takes place in an ER – each episode takes place over one hour of a shift, and it is very realistic medical-wise (at least from what I have read). Hacks is a dark comedy about an aging Vegas comedian who needs to freshen up her act to keep her show and ends up hiring a writer to help her out. The two bond over time.

Now, if you want to dip your toes into advocacy, you should check out Cancer Nation– they help bring together individuals who are affected by cancer and work with the people who can cause change to help improve the quality of care and life post-diagnosis.

So what if you don’t want to get into advocacy, but you want to help others? I’ve linked to peer support organizations like Imerman Angels and Cancer Hope Network in the past, but some cancer-specific organizations have ones, like Blood Cancer United’s First Connections Program, the Colorectal Cancer Alliance’s Buddy Program, and Young Survival Coalition’s Peer Matchmaking (YSC is a breast cancer organization).

I hope all of you have a wonderful March, and I will talk to you again in April (the first week of April is AYA cancer week!). If anyone has a question for me, wants a specific resource, or wants me to write on a specific topic, message me on Instagram: @codyhatescancer or email programs@cactuscancer.org

Do you have a YAAY nominee you want to support? There are a few ways you can support your favorite nominee(s):

  1. Donate to their campaign! If you can only donate a dollar – donate a dollar!
  2. Share their social media posts!
  3. You can start your own fundraiser and join their team!
  4. Cheer them on! Encourage them on social media, text messages, letter, carrier pigeon, however you want to communicate with them!

How do you do the third one? You click on the link to their page up above, and then click on the green “Fundraise” button next to “Team Members” – put in the information for your page (and make sure to select the person you want to raise funds under! This is very important!), and then you are set up!

Cancer Didn’t Come With Instructions. Ask Perrie.

Young adult cancer comes with pamphlets. Port scars. Schedules. Acronyms. Follow-up appointments. 

It does not come with instructions.

There’s no chapter on how to tell someone your diagnosis, how to handle the grief that comes, or what to do when your family and friends feel like they don’t understand. There isn’t an appendix on dating while bald, marriage while sick, or how to navigate cancer ghosting. You won’t find a flowchart for “Why am I angry even though I’m alive?” You won’t find an FAQ for how to handle caregiving without burning out. And trust me when I say there isn’t a secret footnote explaining why your body feels unfamiliar or why losing your hair feels so emotional. 

And yet, the questions keep coming.

At Cactus Cancer Society, we hear them all the time. In DMs. In workshops. In the pause before someone says, “Okay, this might sound weird but…”

It’s not weird. It’s young adulthood colliding with cancer. And that’s complicated stuff. So I’m making space for the questions that don’t fit neatly into a medical visit, the ones you Google at 2 am, or that you feel scared to say outloud. 

I’m Perrie (okay, it’s me, Lauren Morales, the Senior Program Coordinator writing under a pseudonym!), a licensed clinical social worker and young adult Hodgkin Lymphoma survivor who has spent years working alongside young adults impacted by cancer. I’ve sat in hospital rooms, on both sides of the chair. I’ve been in the infusion rooms and support groups. I’ve also helped support folks throughout their treatment and in the post-treatment “WTF just happened” space. I’ve heard the questions people whisper and the ones they laugh off (I’ve had them myself…..) And I know how isolating it can feel to carry them alone.

Ask Perrie is Cactus Cancer Society’s new advice column for young adults navigating every phase of the cancer experience, from diagnosis to treatment to survivorship to recurrence, and for co-survivors walking alongside them. This isn’t therapy. It’s perspective. Context. Language for the things that feel hard to name. Honest, thoughtful responses grounded in real, lived, and professional experience.

This is where you can ask questions like:

I’m surviving, but I am so sad, and everyone keeps just telling me to be grateful. Does that make me ungrateful?
Is it bad that I can’t listen to my friends complain about “normal” things anymore?
How do I date in this body, and when do I know I’m ready?
Why does everyone think I’m strong when I feel completely and totally exhausted?
How do I deal with my friend ghosting me since I told them I was diagnosed?
How do I support my partner/family member without disappearing myself?
Who even am I now?

Each month, Perrie will answer submitted questions with nuance, compassion, and the occasional gentle reality check. Because you deserve answers that treat you like a whole person, not just a diagnosis. Questions will then be posted online in our blog, socials, and newsletter. 

Submit your question anonymously here.

Cancer didn’t come with instructions. Let’s write some together.

When It’s 2 AM and You Need to Talk: Crisis & Immediate Emotional Support

There’s something about the middle of the night that makes everything louder. The worries. The what-ifs. The “what now?” questions that cancer tends to drop like surprise confetti. When you’re wide awake with your mind racing and your heart doing that anxious thump, it can feel like you’re the only one in the world who’s up.

I am here to tell you, you’re not.

If you’re navigating cancer as a young adult, you already know how heavy it can be. The physical toll is only part of it….the emotional weight, the isolation, and the “no one gets it” moments are often just as real. But here’s the thing: you don’t have to face it alone, not even in the middle of the night. There are people (real ones, not robots or recordings) who are awake, trained, and ready to listen.

You Deserve Support, Right Now

Reaching out for help doesn’t mean you’re weak. It means you’re human. Sometimes you just need someone to hold space for you: no fixing, no judgment, just someone who hears you. That’s what these crisis lines are here for. Whether you’re dealing with panic, suicidal ideation, grief, loneliness, or hopelessness, they exist, so you don’t have to carry them alone.

The resources below are here 24/7, for whatever you’re facing. As you explore, trust your instincts; you know what feels right and what doesn’t. Feeling safe and understood is non-negotiable when it comes to your mental health. Sometimes, even the most amazing friends, family, or Cactus Crew can’t hold every tough feeling that comes up with cancer, and that’s totally okay. These lifelines are here to step in and support you when things feel too heavy to handle alone.

💬 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

Call or text 988 | 988lifeline.org
This is the big one — the main line in the U.S. for anyone in emotional distress. You can call, text, or chat online 24/7. You’ll connect with trained counselors who know how to talk through crisis moments, big or small. You don’t have to be suicidal to reach out. Maybe you just feel like everything’s too much. They’ll listen.

📞 American Cancer Society Helpline

Call 800-227-2345 | cancer.org
Cancer brings a lot of “how do I even deal with this?” moments. The ACS Helpline is staffed by folks who can help with everything from emotional support to practical questions about treatment, transportation, and resources. They get the full picture — the logistics and the feelings.

Cancer Support Community Helpline

Call 888-793-9355 | cancersupportcommunity.org
If you want someone who understands cancer-specific mental health needs, CSC has you covered. Their trained oncology professionals are available 24/7 to talk, listen, and point you toward tools and support tailored to what you’re going through.

Crisis Text Line

Text HOME to 741741 | crisistextline.org
Sometimes talking out loud feels like too much. Crisis Text Line offers a totally text-based option. You’ll be chatting with a real human (not AI) who’s trained in crisis response and emotional support. Free, confidential, and open all the time.

Lifeline Chat

988lifeline.org/chat
If you’d rather type than talk, Lifeline Chat lets you connect with a counselor online. It’s private and can feel easier if you’re not ready to pick up the phone.

Warmlines Directory

warmline.org
Not every hard day is a crisis day. Sometimes you just need connection: someone to say, “yeah, I get it.” Warmlines are peer-run, meaning the people on the other end have lived experience with mental health challenges. They’re there to talk, listen, and help you feel less alone.

Why It Matters

Mental health support doesn’t have to wait until things hit a breaking point. You deserve care before it feels like an emergency. And if it is an emergency, you deserve care that meets you exactly where you are. These resources are free, confidential, and available 24/7 because your life and your mental health matter every hour of the day.

If you ever find yourself staring at the ceiling, wondering who to call, start here. You don’t have to have the perfect words. You don’t have to know what to say. You just have to reach out.

You’re Not Alone in This

At Cactus Cancer Society, we believe in the power of connection because healing happens in community. Whether it’s through art, conversation, creativity, or care, we’re here to help you find your people and your peace.

Explore our full Mental Health & Peer Support Resources page to find more organizations, groups, and programs that get it.

You’re not a burden. You’re not overreacting. You’re a human being doing your best in an impossible situation and you deserve support right now.