Today's Guest Post is from Matthew Zachary (featured in the photo below) who is the Founder and CEO of the I'm Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation. Matthew is a young adult cancer survivor of 13 years, concert pianist, social entrepreneur, national spokesperson for young adult survivors and proud refugee from the ad world. If you work in the youth media or marketing space and would like to write a Guest Post, just email us.

Youth Cancer Culture

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 or 30s. Yes, it's true: Members of 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 30-plus 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 observe 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 has actually increased. Moreover, our population gets *different cancers* than other age groups rendering standards in "prevention" and "early detection" virtually ineffective.

This past summer, in partnership with JWT Communications and The Ulman Cancer Fund For Young Adults, the I'm Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation conducted "The Stupid Cancer Survey", 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 differ in attitude and behavior from their counterparts who have not been affected by cancer. It's "youth culture" (YC) vs. "youth cancer culture" (YCC) – a kind of purposeful psychographic cage match whose results might help fund cancer investigations to reduce the risk of late detection, end isolation, improve quality of life, provide meaningful survivorship and – for the first time in more than 30 years – increase the 5-year survival rates for this lost generation of survivors.

So, is the YC that much different than the YCC? You bet! And the data is staggering. As it turns out, the YCC tended to:

- Be more educated and gainfully employed
- Have more disposable income with a greater propensity for philanthropy
- Be significantly more socially conscious and influenced by CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
- Live their lives to the fullest with a dynamically engaged lifestyle rich in cultural arts experiences
- Foster much less narcissism, and significantly more altruism (volunteerism off the charts)
- Consume upscale brands that promote a socially responsible image

And so we christen the YCC, the hottest new affinity market to hit the healthcare scene, some 5 million strong (age 18-39). So who are these people and where are they? They're all around us. One in ten cancer survivors is under 40 and one in 50 Americans under 40 is a cancer survivor. Also, one in 100 college students is a cancer survivor.

We invite inquiries to learn more about this research and offer our organization and its resources as an opportunity for partnership and collaboration.

Categorized under: Youth Marketing

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