…and how they aren’t living up to their potential!
As you look through our campaign and our proposal, you might be thinking, aren’t there already support systems for patients? Yes! The issue is not that quality support doesn’t exist, it is that there is a disconnect between the service and the patient.
In the last 5 years (as of 1/1/2020), 5,718,924 people were diagnosed with cancer. Zooming out to a 19-year span (between 2001-19), an alarming 12,951,044 were diagnosed with cancer.
Many cancer organizations like ACS, Cancer Hope Network, and Imerman’s Angels are dedicated to providing personalized emotional support. However, despite their committed efforts, compared to the almost 2 million diagnosed each year, there is still much work to be done.
For example, ACS’s Reach To Recovery program, aiding breast cancer patients has had less than 2000 downloads for its mobile app, although the program has been running for over 50 years.
In 17 years, Imerman’s Angels, a wonderful organization matching patients with survivors, has made just over 36,000 matches—a fraction of the potential impact.
The Cancer Hope Network, for more than 40 years, provided connections and resources to only 50,000 or so individuals facing cancer.
Many other orgs catering to different cancers also show similar lower numbers of patients served. For example, in 2023 alone there were 288,000 cases of prostate cancer and Prostate Cancer Foundation’s facebook support group has just above 3000 members!
While these organizations are making good efforts to provide personalized emotional support, their low-patient engagement demands a significant shift in the approach.
What is this shift, you ask??? CanSER!
If you, too, believe that we need a familiar and trustworthy national system for the emotional support of cancer patients/survivors, endorse today!