Celebrate A Decade of Impact!

Can you believe it?  2025 marks 10 incredible years of reducing isolation among young adults facing cancer!  Together, we’ve built a vibrant, resilient, and creative community – and now it’s time to celebrate everything we’ve achieved.

Shall I set the scene? 

On April 5, 2025, we’ll gather in beautiful Berkeley, California, to raise our sparkling glasses and honor a decade of impact on the young adult cancer community.  This unforgettable evening will feature Barcelona-inspired tapas, signature refreshments, and an exquisite gallery of auctionable art created by our talented community members.  The night will also feature an inspiring award ceremony to recognize exceptional advocates who have lived out our mission

But that’s not all!  Start the day with us at a morning Art Workshop where we will experience the magic of creative coping and community in person (!!!). Over coffee and treats, we’ll come together to create, connect, and celebrate the power of art in healing.

Over the past 10 years, Cactus Cancer Society’s virtual creative coping programs have brought hope and connection to more than 14,500 young adults as they navigate the harsh landscape of cancer. This remarkable milestone –and the transformative power of community– are a testament to the unwavering support of our cherished network mission partners, program participants, and dedicated advocates. Cactus Cancer Society, at its core, is a creative collaboration, and every bit of this success reflects what you, our community, has made possible. 

So, will you join us?  Dust off your California cocktail attire that makes you feel fabulous because we are wine-ing, dining, and celebrating this anniversary in style. 

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to gather in person with our vibrant young adult cancer community and the allies in our mission who have made this decade of impact possible. Tickets are available at the early bird price until February 1st – secure yours today and mark your calendar for an event that promises to inspire, uplift, and celebrate or shared impact.

Together, let’s toast to 10 years of resilience, creativity, and connection–and to the incredible future ahead!

GET YOUR GALA TICKET NOW!

How do stress, conflict, and isolation impact cancer outcomes?

Here at Cactus Cancer Society, we believe in the power of research for improving the lives of those who may be diagnosed with cancer in the future.  We’re always interested in amplifying the voices and experiences of young adults facing cancer, and making sure this population is represented in research. Check out the research opportunity below to see how you can use your story to help others!

The Young Adult Cancer Survivor Study

The purpose of this study is to understand more about how the world that teen and young adult lymphoma survivors live in affects the outcomes of their cancer treatment. We call this field of research social genomics, and it takes a close look at why and how different factors like social stress, conflict, and isolation can impact cancer diagnoses and outcomes.

This study for young adult cancer survivors is being run by a fellow young adult cancer survivor.  For more info, watch the research team’s informational YouTube video at https://youtu.be/xDlnWKvtkuU.

Am I Eligible to Participate?

You are eligible to participate if you:

  • Were diagnosed with Hodgkin or non-Hodgkin lymphoma between the ages of 15 and 39
  • Are currently between the ages of 18 and 39
  • Completed treatment within the past three years

What Will I Be Asked to Do?

You’ll be asked to complete an online survey every six months for two years and provide a blood sample every six months for two years.

Will I Be Compensated?

Participants will receive a $20 gift card each time they complete a survey and provide a blood sample (5 times for a total of $100).

How Do I Sign Up?

Learn more at https://youtu.be/xDlnWKvtkuU.  To sign up to participate, visit https://redcapproduction.umms.med.umich.edu/surveys/?s=ATKW4KFCEYHL9YR3

Songwriting Workshop!

September Art Workshop: Songwriting

Creative acts like writing a song can seem mysterious and intimidating. But! What if the goal wasn’t so mysterious and intimidating and could be achieved by anyone who wants to experience a little more creativity and magic in their life? Whether this is your first time writing a song or you’ve written a thousand, we’ll be working together as a group while walking you through the steps of channeling your thoughts into a song in Cactus Cancer Society’s first-ever songwriting workshop! 

We will be using Jeff Tweedy’s book, How to Write One Song: Loving the Things We Create and How They Love Us Back as a guide to unlock your creativity and get over that speedbump of self-consciousness and inspiration!

Who: young adult cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers.

When: Thursday, September 26th, from 5:00-7:00pm PT / 7:00-9:00pm CT / 8:00-10:00pm ET

To learn more and sign up,  click here!

CancerCon: Oodles Of Thoughts and Meetup in Austin!

Are you going to this year’s CancerCon?

 

 

Come hang with our co-founders Mallory & Aerial and some of your prickly pals at Aussie’s August 16 @ 7:30pm CDT!! It’s just a short walk from the Hyatt Regency Hotel and we’ll have some fun CCS swag and snacks!! Click our link to RSVP below! 

 

 

Also – come do a workshop with us IN PERSON! We’ll be doing Oodles of Thoughts: A Doodle Journal Workshop live on August 17 @9:45am CDT, where participants can respond to journal prompts with writing, doodling, or a combination of the two as a way to embrace creative coping and expression through art and writing. Focus on self-care and self-expression in an intentionally designed nurturing, supportive, safe environment among your peers! Be there Saturday morning with your oodles of thoughts! 

RSVP for our meetup here!

End of Fiscal Year 2024

Urgent Request from Cactus Cancer Society

You know better than anyone that our programs fill up quickly and our waitlists are growing.

Our Art Workshops are filling up faster than ever, sometimes within minutes. These workshops foster connection and relieve isolation – so well, in fact, that we need to offer additional programs to meet the growing number of young adults facing cancer who want to participate. 

The situation has become critical: We have a growing waitlist of young adults who are being turned away from the programs they want to join. We know you agree – placing young adults facing the darkest, loneliest days of their lives on the waitlist simply isn’t good enough.

In this pivotal time, we urgently need help funding additional Art Workshops. Before the close of our fiscal year on June 30th, we need to reach our $8,250 goal. It’s no small ask, but we need to provide 165 additional spaces to support young adults like Gabriella as they navigate cancer. 

 “Thank you so much for donating and making art night possible! It is such a welcome distraction during cancer treatment, greatly boosted my mood, gave me something to look forward to, and allowed me to connect with others going through cancer.” 

-Gabriella, Art Workshop Participant

By showing your support today, you’ll help expand our Art Workshops, clear the waitlists, and ensure young adults facing cancer get the support they are reaching for in the upcoming year. If you are able, please, make a contribution today and help us clear the waitlists!

DONATE

10 Questions with Robynne

In this blog series called 10 Questions With, we get to know our amazing community members a bit more through questions and photos. We are so excited to introduce Robynne Estrada, who is an active member of our Cactus Cancer Society community. She is a pure delight, and we know you’ll love her, too! Read on to discover more about Robynne.

Continue reading

Stephen’s Sanctuary: January 2024

Hey friends! 

There’s a new spot over here on the blog. Step right up. Come on in. 

 
It’s a new year – yes, it is! This time of year can feel a little strange and discombobulating. I hope wherever you are, you are staying away from this season’s plethora of sicknesses and enjoying some things that help alleviate some stress and get your year off to a solid start. I’m not quite sure what this year will have in store for me, but here are some things that kept me good company in 2023. 
 
  • The Stephen King Project.
As this past October approached, it dawned on me that although I had seen a handful, there were a lot of Stephen King works adapted for TV and film that I had never seen. I thought that this would be a fun, appropriate project for the month. Well, there are a TON of those adaptations and nobody with any kind of sane schedule could watch even 75% of them in four weeks. So it lasted a little longer than the month of October. Obviously, there are varying levels of quality, but even the adaptations that didn’t quite work became fun to watch and rank alongside the others. I don’t have any great epiphanies here about King’s work or how it’s been adapted. My favorite is still The Shining. (Sorry, fellow Stephen, I know you’re not a big fan.) My least favorite? Well, let’s not be negative in the sanctuary here right off the bat. I’ll just say that you don’t have to go out of your way to see Desperation or the new version of Firestarter. On a more positive tip: I’m not sure Dolores Claiborne, the original Pet Sematary or The Dead Zone get enough love. This whole thing was similar to how I spent time in the early days of the pandemic. There was so much time, so I started binging shows with more seasons than I’d usually be willing to dive into; or going through a filmmaker’s filmography. It’s just a fun and interesting way to consume these things and give it some structure, so you’re not browsing on streaming services for an hour each night with your downtime. 
 
 
This podcast has been around since 2017, but I found myself returning to it again this year. Are you a huge fan of country music? Do you have little interest in country music outside of the few songs you like by [name here]? If your answer to either of these questions is yes, then you should check out this podcast. Tyler Mahan Coe is great at navigating through the history of the genre and the fascinating humans who have been a part of it. The other wonderful thing is that the pod has its own companion blog, with transcripts of the episodes, sources cited, and links to the songs and YouTube videos referenced. So if you prefer to read an article and have the songs he’s talking about at your fingertips, instead of listening to the podcast while driving – you have that option. And before you know it, you’re looking up performances from old morning shows and planning to make a trip to Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace. 
 
  • Jelly Belly Red Licorice Scottie Dogs
 
Yes, this is a very specific item to bring up and yes, I’m serious. They are delicious. They make a trip to the movies better. If you have a dentist appointment coming up, you might want to hold off on this. But if you have a sweet tooth like me, these little dogs are almost an anti-anxiety supplement. Red Vines and Twizzlers have their own thing. The licorice scottie dogs just have a different texture and taste. I was going to close this segment with something like; “They truly are the best in show” and thought better of it. But now I’ve included that tidbit and now we’re both embarrassed for me. Just go grab yourself a treat that you enjoy as much as I enjoy these little dogs. 
 
I hope you find some fun projects, distractions, rabbitholes and treats to help get you through the start of this year. 
 
Peace, love, empathy,
Stephen