By Liz Belilovskaya

Mailet Lopez is a young, beautiful and spirited businesswoman with a charismatic persona and a charming smile. Just by looking at her you would never guess that she is also a cancer survivor. Yet in March of 2008, she was diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. Most of us know it as breast cancer. She was only 33 years old. Most people assume that cancer is rare or that it typically occurs later in life, but Mailet, along with countless others, are proof that cancer can touch anyone, at anytime, anywhere. The current statistics are staggering. 1 out of 3 women and 1 in 2 men will get cancer. Cancer is not rare at all.

Hearing the phrase “You have cancer” is shattering and crushing. Entire lives are completely altered, forever changed upon hearing those words for the first time. The goals and dreams of diagnosed individuals and their families are suddenly transformed into one hope – getting through cancer as smoothly as possible. Your first instinct is to find as much information as possible from any source available, but frequently, trustworthy information about cancer is hard to come by online.

Mailet was on vacation when she first got the news of her diagnosis and happened to be with her family at the moment she got the news. Luckily, she was not alone, but she remained uncertain of her future, and the fact that no one around her had gone through what she would was alienating. She didn’t have someone to relate to either learn from or anyone that could understand what she was going through. So like many others, she went online.

She conducted a lot of research and looked into various forums and discussion boards. Many were difficult to navigate and contained so much scattered information that instead of hope, she found uncertainty and confusion. What Mailet really wanted, was to talk to someone who had stood in her shoes and lived. Luckily, she met someone by accident who was not only a breast cancer survivor close to Mailet’s age, but also the person who would change her life and treatment by the interaction shared.

As the co-founder of a minority and woman owned, award winning digital media agency in NYC – Squeaky Wheel Media – Mailet decided to use her talents and the assets of her agency to create I Had Cancer for cancer fighters, survivors and their supporters. It is a new, free to use, social support network for anyone touched by cancer. Whether you are a cancer fighter, a survivor or are currently supporting someone going through cancer, there is a place for you on I Had Cancer.

The site has a multitude of functions. Users can post their stories, use the site as a blog, connect to others who have either had or currently have the same situation, support one another and read about each other’s treatments. To find someone specific a filtered search is available. You can refine it by age, gender, type of cancer, year diagnosed, and approximate location.

It is important to note, however that this is NOT a medical site. The focus lies solely on making it easier to connect to others with similar experiences, similar to Faceboook in the sense that in order to read someone’s story in detail you have to send a friend request. Once you are accepted, all information is accessible. Users can share as much or as little as they want.

I Had Cancer is open to the public. If you or someone you know has been affected by cancer you can go to ihadcancer.com to register and begin interacting with others who have been in your shoes. Be sure to read Mailet’s profile for her story. In the words of the founder “together, we can change the way people deal with cancer.”

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