By Kathy LaTour

Vital Options® International TeleSupport Cancer Network launched the first National Young Adult Cancer Awareness Week™ in 2003 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the group, which pioneered the young adult cancer movement in the United States.

Vital Options launched National Young Cancer Awareness Week in association with OncoLink, the award-winning cancer information resource on the World Wide Web from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania (www.oncolink.org). This year, CURE will join OncoLink and Vital Options International (www.vitaloptions.org) in this collaborative effort to focus on issues related to cancer in young adults for awareness week 2004, which begins April 5. National Young Adult Cancer Awareness Week will kick off with a special Vital Options broadcast of The Group Room® cancer talk radio show that will be video simulcast by OncoLink on Sunday, April 4.

Vital Options was founded in 1983 by Selma Schimmel, the year she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 28. The first organization in the United States to focus specifically on the unique clinical and psychosocial needs of young adults with all types of cancer between the ages of 17 through the mid-40s, Vital Options helped lay the foundation for the young adult cancer advocacy movement.

And while today the organization is no longer limited to young adults, Vital Options remains committed to this special patient population and has launched a new website (www.youngadultswithcancer.org) to provide a clearinghouse for information from all organizations dedicated to this patient population.

“Young adults with cancer face unique developmental issues, and we look forward to partnering with other organizations to help provide information that is of concern to young adults and for a still maturing movement,” says Schimmel, who is also the host of The Group Room, which reaches more than half-a-million radio listeners each Sunday as well as others worldwide who hear the show live at www.vitaloptions.org, where the show is also archived. Callers join discussions by dialing 800-GRP-ROOM (800-477-7666).

Schimmel will be speaking at the first CURE Patient & Survivor Forum on May 22 and 23 in Dallas as will Heidi Shultz Adams, founder of Planet Cancer, and Doug Ulman, president and founder of the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults, director of survivorship for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and a three-time cancer survivor.

“It is still not uncommom for a young adult to be delayed in diagnosis and face myriad issues that are very different from other cancer patients, which are compounded by an overwhelming sense of isolation,” says Schimmel, now a 21-year survivor. “This is why Young Adult Cancer Awareness Week is an important way not only to increase awareness but also to further expand and strengthen the support network for young adults and their loved ones dealing with cancer.”.

Half-a-million cancer survivors living in this country were diagnosed between age 20 and 45, facing unique developmental issues and needs. Unlike older cancer survivors, young adults are still striving to reach their goals and live their dreams.

A number of cancer support organizations are now directed toward young adults. For a complete listing, go to www.youngadultswithcancer.org.