Matthew Zachary
// cancer survivor, concert pianist & motivational speakerMATTHEW ZACHARY is a cancer survivor, concert pianist, and motivational speaker from Brooklyn, New York. He is an award-winning recording artist, composer, performer, and is also an accredited thought-leader in public health. Matthew Zachary is Founder and CEO of the I’m Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation, helping to reverse thirty years of disparity and create lasting change in how the public relates to cancer. Matthew has fifteen years of experience in advertising, marketing, information technology, and visual communications for print and web. He also serves as an advisor on the prestiguous Google Health Advisory Council, sharing his expertise in cause-branding, consumer healthcare, non-profit management, public relations, and social media.
Website: www.matthewzachary.com
Photo: Matthew Zachary
Interview:
One in fifty Americans between 18 and 40, and one in one-hundred American college students is a cancer survivor. Chew on that. They are all around us but you’d never know because we look just like you. It is important to recognize that we have made incredible strides for the majority of people who are affected by cancer each year. But for young adults, we are only just now getting our comeuppance and a global voice to share our own generational grievances, public health disparities and too-often ignored unique survival issues. After all, at the end of the day, the message is “It happens but this is how I am going to get busy living, dammit”. We want cancer to be a speed bump so we can get back to our derailed plans. How dare this get in my way? Seriously. So if and when you hear the words “You’re cured, go home”, or “Now get on with the rest of your life”, or “What have you got to complain about, you’re alive!”, or “There are people worse off who didn’t go through what you want through”. Just remember the young adult social movement has your back like no one else. The rest of the world doesn’t have to get it, but we do.
So take my ball, boob, brain, hair, hearing, colon, and dignity. I will find something equal if not more fabulous to replace it with. Perhaps a Snuggie. After all, if cancer is the worst thing that has ever happened, just think, “Been there. Done that. What could possibly be worse? Bring it on!” Then again, if it’s a gift, just don’t re-gift it. Too often, when some of the life’s unavoidable insanity takes over and things get out of control, we turn to music to help make sense of the madness. Your life is a work of art: unique, expressive and capable of taking you places that you could never imagine. Cancer doesn’t change that. It’s gift is a blank canvas and the art of your survivorship is all about how you choose to get busy living by expressing yourself, sharing your story, and celebrating the now.
“Too often, when some of life’s unavoidable insanity takes over and things get out of control, we turn to music to help make sense of the madness.” – Matthew Zachary, cancer survivor, concert pianist, and motivational speaker
