BROOKLYN, NY – July 5, 2007 – Matthew Zachary, Founder and Executive Director of The I'm Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation For Young Adults (i[2]y) has been appointed as a member of the newly formed Google Health Advisory Council. Zachary will share i[2]y's experience in engaging its youth culture and young adult constituents through the organization's advocacy innovations, social networks and comprehensive website portal, www.ImTooYoungForThis.org.
The Google Health Advisory Council was created to help Google better understand the problems consumers and health providers face in the healthcare system today. Council members will offer Google feedback on ideas for new products and services to empower consumers with their health care decisions. Zachary joins other experts from provider organizations, consumer and disease-based groups, physician-based organizations, research institutions, and health care policy foundations.
"We are at a tipping point for social change in cancer advocacy and this is a profound opportunity to represent the voices of more than 1 million young adult survivors as Google defines its vision for a global consumer healthcare revolution," said Zachary.
i[2]y has earned accolades from the oncology community for establishing a global presence and filling gaps to rectify public health inequities faced by the young adult population, aged 15-39, now estimated at over 1 million survivors by the National Cancer Institute. The i[2]y initiative, launched in January 2007, has quickly developed an affiliate network of 200 cancer centers, mobilized thousands of survivors into an international social network, organized the first arts coalition of young musician/survivors and produced a pioneering live, weekly, interactive social radio broadcast–The Stupid Cancer Show. i[2]y is widely regarded as the next big thing in advocacy for a grossly underserved, but motivated, population.
"What Matthew and his foundation have achieved in such a short time, clearly indicates the demand to fill an expansive gap in our healthcare continuum," says Dr. Kevin Oeffinger, Director, Living Beyond Cancer: A Program for Adult Survivors of Pediatric Cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. "In concert with their relationship with Google, I am optimistic that the opportunity to fill those gaps is now more tangible than ever."
About i[2]y
The I'm Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation For Young Adults is a global support community for young adults affected by cancer. Our mission is to improve quality of life by providing 'one-stop' access to hard to find resources, peer support and social networks. We use music and the arts to make it hip to be a survivor and talk about stupid cancer by advocating on behalf of more than 200 young adult support resources and more than one million survivors aged 15-39 who are currently living with, through and beyond cancer worldwide. For additional information, please visit www.ImTooYoungForThis.org.
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The i2Y Benefit CD is a part of the Acoustic Fuel Approved! Series.
