Wayback Machine

Picture it: 2007. My second bedroom. A hand-me-down desk. Zero dollars. And a name so ridiculous it couldn’t not work—“I’m Too Young for This Cancer Foundation.” (Yeah, rolls off the tongue, right?) It was scrappy, grassroots, and deeply personal.

It also happened to be a groundbreaking new national brand for young adult cancer advocacy, pulling together all the scattered pieces of a neglected community.

Turns out, a lot of people thought that mattered.

By 2008, thanks to sheer grit (and maybe some blood, sweat, and caffeine), we hosted the OMG! Cancer Summit for Young Adults, our first national conference in NYC at the Marriott Marquis.

That same year, young adults across the country were so fired up that they started throwing regional “Stupid Cancer Happy Hours.”

One of the OG hotspots? Rochester, NY.

Fast forward to today: I found a flyer from one of those 2008 events buried in a box in my house. Seeing it brought a flood of gratitude and some serious nostalgia. This wasn’t just an event—it was a spark.

It was a rallying cry for a movement bigger than any one person. It’s proof of what happens when people come together, face the same direction, and shout, “We’re not invisible anymore!”

Six years after I stepped down, Stupid Cancer remains a juggernaut. Its legacy is alive and kicking because we are that legacy. So, to every single person who helped take this thing from my scrappy home office to the national stage: Thank you. I mean it.

Here’s a blast from the past.

Watch the video and comment below—did you play a part in this wild ride? Or maybe you just want to say, “Yeah, advocacy matters.” Because it does. This was the start of something that still matters.