Our Impact

Impact Numbers

Adventure Programs

Send It has provided over 70 multi-day adventure programs throughout Northern California

600

Adventure Experiences

Since our inaugural trip in 2015 we have skied, biked, climbed, surfed, hiked, and hot tubbed providing over 600 adventure experiences for young adult cancer patients.

700

Yet to Send It

The need for empowering experiences in the outdoors and a community of peer support is substantial. Our waitlist now exceeds 700 cancer patients and continues to grow.

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Truths About Cancer

This year, it is estimated that nearly 80,000 adolescents and young adults (AYA) will be diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. Because of their age, young adults are caught between the worlds of pediatric and adult oncology, and face a unique set of medical and emotional challenges and needs.

The needs of this age group are no better, no worse, but different. Some of the most common and most overlooked issues AYA cancer patients face include:

Social isolation
Fertility
Financial resources, financial planning, and financial toxicity
Lost sense of purpose, hopes and dreams
Body insecurities, sex and dating fears
Fear of recurrence, late effects from treatment and secondary cancers

This is already a time with big life transitions; defining their careers, building relationships, making moves and ‘adulting’. As a young person with a cancer diagnosis, you may feel like your independence is stripped at a time when you were just starting to gain it. At Send It, young adult patients and survivors have an opportunity to experience the healing power of the outdoors, and to find community through peer support.

“Hospitals and cancer centers, their goal is to make sure you don’t have cancer anymore. It’s organizations like Send It that really enrich the cancer experience for survivors and create an opportunity for growth. There are days when you can’t get off the couch because it’s so mentally and physically debilitating. When you get that opportunity to get into waves, or climb a mountain, or ski down it, that’s where your life starts to come back to you.”

– Alumni

The Healing Benefits of The Outdoors

Send It is about experiencing the grandeur of the outdoors as a place for refuge from the physical and emotional overwhelm of cancer; to experience play, awe and joy. It is on the ski slopes, in the waves, on the trail where participants have the opportunity to connect more deeply with themselves and their bodies, cultivating resilience and courage through challenge – tools that support us through adversity and translate directly to the fight for life. Being among peers who have been through a similar experience provides a sense of camaraderie and support that does not exist at the same depth in their ‘normal’ lives.

For many, Send It is the first time since diagnosis where participants have an encouraging place to try new activities like skiing and surfing, a safe space to share their stories, and an opportunity to identify with peers who can relate to the losses and life-changes that cancer brings. The impact of a Send It trip is a life-changing shift in strength and joy, leaving participants with a renewed source of energy, healing and most importantly, community.

“Send It has given me a family, a community brought together by our lowest lows to witness each other’s highest highs. We have laughed together, cried together, and cried from laughing together. It is a group of people who fill my heart like no other group can.”

“My first Send It adventure sparked the belief that not only could I reclaim my body but that, if I could fight to survive, my physical capabilities were limitless.”

“I realize that fear can teach us a lot of useful things, and it doesn’t always have to be bad. The “controlled” fear of trying something new with a group of total strangers – like backpacking with Send It – lets me work out my emotions around my real fears of recurrence, death, etc. in a really constructive way, and that’s the beauty of something like Send It.”

“The first time I spoke to another young adult survivor I was like, ‘wow, you get it’. That camaraderie is really important. The stories of strength and hope they can share with you can help pull you out of the darkness when you feel as though you have nothing left.”

“Hospitals and cancer centers, their goal is to make sure you don’t have cancer anymore. It’s organizations like Send It that really enrich the cancer experience for survivors and create an opportunity for growth. There are days when you can’t get off the couch because it’s so mentally and physically debilitating. When you get that opportunity to get into the waves, or climb a mountain, or ski down it, that’s when your life starts to come back to you.”

“I have not laughed this hard in a long time. I haven’t been worried all week about what I look like. I haven’t been worried about what my chest looks like and that I don’t have breasts. I have been AMAZED at how capable my body is. And that opens my world back up.”

“The biggest thing for me was the revelation that we all have an inner strength that empowers us to achieve things and live through experiences we never previously thought possible. I experienced that in the grandeur of the outdoors on my Send It trip and I continue to hold these ideals close in my life today.”

“I keep saying ‘physically exhausting but emotionally fulfilling. My body may be weary and bruised, but my soul is so dang happy! Great people, great adventures, great food, great time together.”

Hospitals and cancer centers, their goal is to make sure you don’t have cancer anymore. It’s organizations like Send It that really enrich the cancer experience for survivors and create an opportunity for growth. There are days when you can’t get off the couch because it’s so mentailly and physically debilitating. When you get that opportunity to get into the waves, or climb a mountain, or ski down it, that’s when your life starts to come back to you.”

“My first Send It adventure sparked the belief that not only could I reclaim my body but that, if I could fight to survive, my physical capabilities were limitless.”

Impact Numbers

Adventure Programs

Adventure Experiences

Yet to Send It

Truths About Cancer

The Healing Benefits of The Outdoors

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