My cancer support organization, Imerman Angels, and its purpose

The one missing puzzle piece in my cancer fight—there’s only one, I can honestly say, everything else was there, the doctors were there, I had great doctors, my parents, my family was great. My friends were great. I mean, everyone in my life rallied around and supported me. I was never alone—very lucky, very lucky—but, the one piece was, I never met somebody who said, “Look buddy, I’m your age and I’m a survivor and I know how you feel. Because that same bed you’re lying in, I was there, last year. And today, I’m up and around. I’m stronger and this is how I built myself back up. And this is how I got through it and this is what it’s like and this is how I felt and here’s my story.” I would have loved to connect with somebody who said, “Look, I’ve been there, done that, I relate, and I remember.” That sort of empathy would have motivated me a ton.

And so we did it. We created an organization I never thought I would do full-time and now I can’t imagine not doing it full-time. And we love what we do every single day. What we do is we give exactly that gift to the cancer fighters out there. So any cancer fighter out there, for free, can call us and we’re going to say, “You know what, we know someone and he’s your age, or she’s your age, and she beat your cancer, at your stage level, with all the same treatments that you have coming up. And living proof in those shoes: survival. Been done before. She did, you can. Here’s your path, that’s where you want to be. And talk to them. It’s a friend. It’s also a survivor who cares and is genuinely and sincerely grateful like I am and just wants to share their story to help somebody and motivate them and answer the hard questions and answer all the little fringe questions like, ’What color is chemo, before I start this stuff?’ ‘How many days in chemo before the nausea really sets in?’” Survivors know, it’s all right here.

The overall system, on a macro perspective, is how can we bridge the gap between all these survivors wandering around who want to help and create a system for them one-on-one very accurately, very calculatingly giving back, to the right cancer fighter? We came up with Imerman Angels and we have about 1,000 angels today or just about across 1,000 cancer survivors all over the country—even some internationally. We have some in Australia, London, Paris, Canada, Mexico, doesn’t matter where they live. Anyone touched by cancer or any survivor can get involved one-on-one. But essentially that’s what we do. We want everyone in 5 years—our 5-year mission is for every single American to have free access to a cancer survivor within 24 hours. So if they want it, they’re going to know about it within 24 hours to call us and we’re going to already prove to you that someone in your shoes has beaten it. That’s our mission.