Heads up, Cactus Crew! We are heading into our next four-week creative adventure with coloring, journaling, good conversation, and people who understand the many plot twists of young adult cancer. Creative Arts Book Club is back, and this season we’re practicing the fine art of being where our feet are.
Together, we’ll work through Into the Moment: A Journal and Coloring Book to Inspire Mindful Creativity by Dani DiPirro. It’s filled with coloring pages, journal prompts, and grounding activities that can help an anxious or overwhelmed brain slow down and focus on what’s right in front of you.
Each week, we’ll gather online for two hours of creative connection with fellow young adult cancer patients, survivors, and thrivers. You can journal, doodle, color, share, follow the prompts wherever they take you, or use the time to engage in any other creative activity that your brain may be craving. Your artistic experience can range from a carefully organized marker collection to a deep appreciation for stick figures. It all works here.
We’ll make things, talk about life, and spend a little time outside the swirl of appointments, responsibilities, and whatever else your brain has been carrying around.
Help Us Color in the Gaps in AYA Cancer Care
During the final 30 minutes of each session, we’ll hold a compensated focus group about shared decision-making and biomarker education in YA oncology.
Shared decision-making happens when patients and healthcare providers make care decisions together, considering medical information along with the patient’s goals, values, preferences, and real life.
Biomarkers are features found in a tumor, blood, or genes that can provide information about someone’s cancer and may help guide treatment options. Examples include HER2 in breast, stomach, and some lung cancers; EGFR and ALK in lung cancer; BRCA1 and BRCA2 in breast, ovarian, prostate, and pancreatic cancers; KRAS in colorectal, lung, and pancreatic cancers; and IDH in gliomas. You don’t need any of these biomarkers to participate; we’re interested in learning from a range of experiences!
We know that talking about cancer care can mean revisiting decisions, questions, and moments that felt deeply personal, confusing, or vulnerable. We’re sincerely grateful to everyone willing to share what they understood, what they wish had been explained differently, and what helped them feel heard by their healthcare team. Your perspective carries real value, and we will treat it with the care it deserves. What you share can help shape clearer, more compassionate educational resources and support for young adults navigating cancer now and in the future.
Who: Young adult cancer patients, survivors, and thrivers ages 18–45
What: A four-week creative arts book club and compensated focus group
When: Tuesdays, September 15, September 22, September 29, and October 6
Time: 5–7 p.m. PT / 6–8 p.m. MT / 7–9 p.m. CT / 8–10 p.m. ET
Where: Online via Zoom!
Compensation: $10 Amazon gift card for each focus group session attended, with $50 total for participating in all four sessions + a free copy of Into the Moment: A Journal and Coloring Book to Inspire Mindful Creativity by Dani DiPirro
This season of Creative Arts Book Club is sponsored by Daiichi Sankyo (DSI), a pharmaceutical company with a focus on oncology. Focus group feedback will be shared with DSI in de-identified form, which means your name and identifying information will not be included.
Questions? Email us at programs@cactuscancer.org.