Shave for the Brave News
Why we need the Shave for the Brave
Posted on Mar 09, 2011
We're smack in the middle of the Shave for the Brave season and we're excited to see what this year will bring. As our biggest fundraiser, a successful Shave means the ability to help more young adults dealing with cancer in Canada this year.
The Shave for the Brave has seen annual growth of about 65 per cent. We raised $311,000 in 2010 so that sets our 2011 target up over $500,000. So far, we have achieved about 27 per cent of that goal and our big Community Shaves are coming up on Saturday, March 12, with many more School and Office Shaves to follow in the coming months.
There is some confusion about where the money raised during the Shave goes. Young Adult Cancer Canada doesn’t contribute to research for a cure. Instead, we focus on improving the quality of life as people transition through and beyond cancer through our programs and resources.
Compared to other cancer organizations, we don’t have a lot of money to work with and we try to use it as best as we can. We took the latest annual revenues of some other recognizable charities and divided them by the number of new diagnoses in each target group per year. Here’s the breakdown:
The average of those three other organizations is about $1500 per year per new diagnosis. That's almost 19 times what we have to work with. Imagine what we could do with that much money! We currently offer online resources like our website to offer information and Goaltender to build a national community; cost-free in-person programs like Retreat Yourself, Survive and Thrive Expeditions, Localife, and the Survivor Conference to bring people together (usually with some travel assistance to subsidize the price of travel as well); products like the We Get It DVD and Touch Yourself, Trust Yourself reminder cards; and we’re looking for ways to expand our offering all the time.
People between 15 and 39 are supposed to be finishing school, building a career, starting a family, enjoying their independence, investing in houses and savings, and working with a body at the peak of health. When they’re diagnosed with cancer, they’re usually in hospitals with people much older or younger than them who don’t have the same worries.
The people in a children’s hospital are usually taken care of by their parents, under their parents’ health insurance, and only have to worry about getting better and going back to school. Most of the patients in regular hospitals are older with established careers, retirement plans, their own children are old enough to care for them and it doesn’t matter much if chemo makes them infertile.
We know young adults with cancer need to connect with other people who “get it,” who have learned how to raise a young family during treatment, who have had to move back in with their parents because they couldn’t work to pay rent, and who understand how difficult it can be to stay connected with your peers while they’re moving on and you’re isolated, tired, and unable to do everything other people your age can do and start to feel left behind. We help them move out of that space and work on making the rest of their lives the best of their lives.
Know that your involvement—whether it’s through Shaving, donating, or organizing—makes a huge difference. Our survivors regularly tell us what a difference our organization has made in their lives. It’s a great reward to be able to help people when they need it most.
Thank you for supporting the Shave for the Brave and we look forward to another great year!
