Youth [CANCER] Culture
Submitted by the stupid cancer blog
Take one part youth culture, one part cancer and what do you get? A whole lot of crapness. Yes, crapness. I made up a word. Why? Because nothing quite sums up so simply and eloquently what it’s like to be diagnosed with cancer in the prime of your life; and by “prime”, I mean your late teens, 20s and 30s. Yes, it’s true. The youth culture actually gets cancer. And a whole lot of cancer, for that matter. Yep, It’s not just for babies, boomers and grandparents anymore. Apparently, bald is the new black and eyebrows are so last season.
If you look back over the past 30 years since Richard Nixon declared his “War On Cancer”, we’ve actually made a great deal of progress. Death rates are falling. More people survive. Just watch CNN, or visit a popular national cancer society website and you’ll see all these magnificent statistics. Sounds great right? Sure… if you’re 65. Or 7.
For the GenX/Y population (ages 15-39), there has been ZERO improvement in survival rates since 1977. ZERO. Even worse, we’re the only population where cancer incidence and mortality have actually increased. More so, our population gets *different cancers* than other age groups rendering standards in “prevention” and “early detection” virtually ineffective.
This past Summer, the I’m Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation conducted “The Stupid Cancer Survey”, a pioneering market research study to determine just *who* young adult cancer survivors are, what makes them tick, how surviving cancer has affected their consumer lives and, most importantly, how they might differ in attitudes and behaviors from their “citizen” counterparts (e.g. young adults who have not been affected by cancer.)
And so we christen the “Youth Cancer Culture”, the latest affinity market to hit the healthcare scene, some 5 million strong. And just who are these Americans? And where are they? Well, they’re all around us. Over 1.5 million of them are themselves survivors of cancer, all diagnosed under the age of 40 (and 1/3 of whom are long-term survivors of childhood cancer now in their young adult years) The remaining 3.5M are their GenX/Y siblings, spouses and caregivers.
So is Youth Culture (YC) that much different than the Youth Cancer Culture (YCC)? You bet – and the data is staggering. We invite inquiries to learn more about this research and offer our organization and it’s resources as an opportunity for partnership and collaboration.
Stupid Cancer. Survivors Rule!
