In New Zealand, 2000 young people are diagnosed with cancer each year. Everyone in this age group (20-45yrs) diagnosed with cancer has a whole lot more living to do whether life provides the chance or not. Whole Lotta Life Foundation (WLL) founder, Kristin Patterson doesn’t believe that cancer is a battle that you "win" or "lose", there is no fighting, or war, or journey and everyone, once diagnosed is a survivor, no remissions necessary!
Where/when/how did the inspiration for your charity arise?
In 2009, when I received my diagnosis for Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and everything in my life started to get turned on its head, I began to feel more and more isolated with no-one to turn to who could relate. It is a terribly lonely feeling at a time when you could really use a lot of support.
Fast forward to October 2012, as I lay in bed reading through a copy of 'Cure' magazine, I came across an article about young adults diagnosed with cancer. They stated that the group called AYA's, adolescents and young adults (15-39yrs), had not seen their survival statistics improve since the 1970's while the groups either side had been steadily improving. I was really floored, and I felt called to action but I also had no idea what to do.
Last year, I came up with a plan, and I knew I had to dream big. What young people needed was a community, support and access to information that related to them specifically. And so the Whole Lotta Life Foundation was born.
What was your primary purpose for creating your charity? And has this changed since its inception?
I wanted to take some of the stress and 'work' out of having cancer for young people in New Zealand. I want to provide all the information they will need in one place so that people can better focus on living. People this young have unique concerns and having cancer affects them in a different way. Fertility and employment are two pretty major areas we will be focusing on but also sexuality/relationships, stress management and self-care.
Did you encounter any roadblocks when setting up your charity? If so, how did you overcome these?
The biggest challenge that I faced setting up this foundation was finding people to help build it. In order to create a charitable trust in NZ, you need to have a Board of Trustees with at least two people on it. I floundered for a long time looking for someone to come on board with the same passion for the cause. I continued to do the work, but knew I couldn't launch it on my own. Tania Dickson, one fierce ovarian cancer survivor, came on board as our Chairwoman and she has been a spectacular help and inspiration. She lives in Invercargill so we work together long distance but it's been great and I couldn't think of anyone better to have by my side.
By what means do you promote your charitable work? How are you using social media to drive your message?
Social media has been such an incredibly valuable tool for spreading the word to people around New Zealand about the work we do. It has easily been the most effective way of letting a large number of people know what we've been up to at a very low cost, which is very important at this stage. I set up the Facebook page when this was only an idea, so we have had a community around us and supporting us from the very beginning. Social media has been a way to keep people in the loop for the whole process.
What has been the best advice given to you by a colleague in the charitable sector?
Early on I reached out to Keri Topperwein, co-founder of the Dream Chaser Foundation. She fielded my questions with open arms and helped guide me through the initial process of figuring out the legal structure for our organisation. At the bottom of an email to me she wrote, "Definitely set up a Facebook support page, best FREE advertising you can get in my opinion." And she was right.
What was your most rewarding experience in 2013?
Last year was all about getting to a point where we could be officially launched. I started this project with $0 which I knew wasn't ideal but I also didn't believe that that was a good enough reason not to do it. When I had raised enough money to create and launch the webpage and start offering our support services that was definitely the highlight.
What are your goals for the charity in 2014?
My goal for 2014 is to get our Foundation's name out in front of the public. I want everyone in New Zealand to know who we are so that no young New Zealander need believe that they are out there facing their cancer diagnosis alone. We have a long way to go, substantial funding to raise and a lot of hard work to do to have our vision become a reality but by the end of this year, I hope to have meet-ups happening once a month all around the country. We will hold our first retreat this year and our design for a toolkit for people newly diagnosed will be finding its way into people's homes. This is an incredibly exciting time for our organisation and I know with the support we have received from Annah Stretton and the wider community, this will only be the beginning of a very exciting future for us.
www.wholelottalife.org
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