Victoria Chamberlain
Appearances
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
So it's this nonprofit organization that's based here in D.C. It's called the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts. And they support cancer patients in a bunch of different ways. They do things like therapeutic art and poetry and a whole lot of support groups. But their whole thing is that they want people to feel like they're going to be okay no matter what happens to them.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
Yeah, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't sad. I mean, it's like a bunch of people that I would consider to be pretty young who have just been diagnosed with cancer. But there were all these really dynamic conversations going on between the people talking about how to live while they're going through this.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
And it made me just kind of realize sitting with these people, like how much we don't know about cancer, about what it's like to live with cancer as a person in your mid-30s. And the people in the group just really wanted to stress how different their challenges are as millennials than like a person in their 70s. Yeah.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
You know, a person who's older, like their kids might be grown, but a millennial might have like little kids in the house.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
When you're in your late 20s and 30s, your career is just starting to take off and then you get a cancer diagnosis and that can just kind of hit the pause button on the whole thing.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
And as if dating wasn't hard enough as it is, dealing with the physical and emotional stuff that happens and the craziness of cancer, it just makes that so much harder.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
But there was also this element of surprise. Like, even though you're hearing tons of news stories out there about millennials getting cancer, you mentioned a couple of them before. We've got Princess Kate and Chadwick Boseman getting
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
I didn't go anywhere, Sean. You didn't go anywhere. You failed. The pandemic changed everything, including cancer support groups. So there's one that used to happen in person. And then it shifted to Zoom so that more people from around the country could go and people who are immune compromised because they have cancer.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
It's still super shocking to be sitting there and receive that diagnosis and then to hear that other people you know or maybe people that you don't know are young and getting cancer.
Today, Explained
Why young people are getting cancer
I hit up a Zoom with a whole bunch of 30 to 40 year olds who are in the thick of cancer diagnosis and survivorship.