By Lesley Morrissey
Each year, YACC’s Big Cancer Hook-up helps us reach new patients/survivors who are now connected to our huge, supportive community — and this year’s event was the largest by far! The numbers are still rolling in, but 274 people pre-registered to watch the show before Saturday night, and over 150 of them were brand new to YACC and our community.
Our alumni were able to re-connect with the community while welcoming all of these new YACCers into the fold. We asked some of our viewers to answer this question “After watching the Big Cancer Hook-up, I felt ___”. Here are just some of the early responses we received:
“That I wasn’t alone”
“Proud and loved”
“Less alone. Like my feelings were heard”
“Connected”
“Empowered”
We were so happy to be able to share this show once again this year. Geoff and Kathy pulled together yet another interesting, funny, moving show. Huge thanks go out to Dr. Heather Palmer, Teva Harrison, Paul Brace, and all of our hot ladies. Thank you all for contributing in such a huge way.
We also want to send thank yous to all of our friends in the cancer world who offered to host a local hook-up: Wellspring Toronto Downtown, Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation, CancerCare Manitoba, Wellspring Edmonton, Wellspring Calgary, InspireHealth Vancouver, and InspireHealth Victoria. I especially also want to thank all our local alumni volunteers who helped us plan these meet ups. We know the time that goes into hosting events like these, and we really appreciate your hard work over the past several months. Without all of you, we could never make this event happen.
Also, thanks again to Tristram Clarke and his team that brought the production level up a notch yet again. You and your team are a blast to work with!
For those of you who missed the show, or that just want to watch the magic again, or the magic from previous years, check out the Big Cancer Hook-up page!
We love this program and we cannot wait to begin planning for 2020’s show!