Calling all angels: Imerman Angels

Jonny wears his T-shirt everywhere he goes to spread the word about Imerman Angels.

As I was saying in my previous post, I had a great time at the Young Women Affected by Breast Cancer conference this past weekend in Atlanta. I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere with so many women in one place.

So imagine my surprise when I boarded the  hotel shuttle and the first person I saw was a guy-Jonny Imerman. Jonny is one of the incredible survivors featured in my book. I first met him at the Annie Appleseed conference in January, but had heard a lot about his organization on the Internet. I’ve learned that Jonny is absolutely everywhere promoting his organization, which matches long-time survivor mentors to newly diagnosed individuals.

I teased him that he would be getting a lot of attention from all these young women at the conference. But Jonny is truly focused on his mission: to match individuals with someone the same age, gender and cancer. So no one has to fight it alone.

Diagnosed with testicular cancer at age 26, Jonny knows first-hand how difficult  it is to find someone who understands. When his cancer returned in the lymph nodes near his spine, he had extensive surgery and learned it would take a while before he was out and at the gym again.

Although he had supportive family and friends, he could not find one other young testicular cancer survivor.  When he recovered, he started recruiting long-term survivors to mentor other survivors, and Imerman Angels was born.

Now we have five full-time employees and more than 2,000 survivors in our worldwide network. We get really fired up; we want to do so much more. People try to brave it alone when they don’t have to. There are so many survivors out there who want to give back and inspire others. They have already been down the same road and are coming back to the starting line to help others get to the finish.

It’s important to get those positive stories out there. There’s a Lance Armstrong for every cancer, someone whose doctor said, “You’re not going to make it. You have maybe six months or a year.” Then years later, they are doing great. Our job is to get that Lance Armstrong hooked up with someone who has the same disease, and say “Here’s a guy who did it; you can do it, too.”

 Our five-year goal is to have a match for everyone within 24 hours who is the same age, gender and cancer. There are lots of hugs and high-fives around our office. We get so excited when we match someone up. Our survivors are clearly changing people’s perspectives. That’s what gets us stoked and motivated: knowing we’re making a difference.

For more information, visit www.imermanangels.org.