Helping People with Cancer

After Gina Mulligan was diagnosed with breast cancer, she received more than two hundred letters of support—mostly from friends of friends. She was touched by the letters and started Girls Love Mail to provide that type of support to women recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The site is full of patient testimonials about the impact the letters make: “As I read them I started crying … I was so glad to see that someone … was thinking of me and wishing me well … It melts my heart to receive these letters.”

When Jonny Imerman was diagnosed with testicular cancer at age twenty-six, he had never met anyone his age who was a cancer survivor, and he wanted to talk to someone who had faced the same type of cancer. To provide that
for others, he founded Imerman Angels. The nonprofit matches people who have cancer with survivors of the same cancer. It also matches caregivers, those who have lost someone to cancer, and people with genetic predispositions to cancer diagnoses with people who have had similar experiences. Imerman Angels tries to match people in similar phases of life so that there’s a deeper understanding of needs. The organization has matched mentors with people in more than one hundred countries. You can sign up and find or become a mentor through its website.