A very special evening for teenage and young adult cancer survivors was held on April 12 at the Dave & Busters in Orange, Orange County where we celebrated the coming together of the CHOC Cancer Institute and the UC Irvine Healthcare System's Program for Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Patients.
The evening was entitled "It Can't Own Me" and was a spectacular success, with over 200 people showing up including survivors of pediatric cancers, adolescent patients who are currently undergoing therapy, young adults in therapy, as well as young adult cancer survivors. The mixture of the different ages around a common concern and a common desire to celebrate life and to prove to themselves and to the world that their cancer can’t own them.
The highlight of the evening was a performance by Jonna Tomases of her one-person act called "Jonna's Body", which was enjoyed by all. The most spectacular success of the evening was the videoing of interviews with many of the cancer patients where they were able to express in their own words what having cancer meant to them and what cancer survivorship means to them now.
Stay tuned for the release of some of these videos as YouTube events, as well as placement onto this web site that is being developed by Jan Lansing and Nicole Borchard and the marketing program at CHOC known as "It Can't Own Me," a wonderful social media site that has great promise of being able to use new modern technology of Internet communications to connect young people together in a social network and forum. Our hope is to continue this project and expand it to other patients in the system so that we can end the loneliness and isolation often felt by young patients and young adults.