May Cause Radiance is a nonprofit organization with roots in the Southern Interior of British Columbia, that aims to provide support to young adults affected by cancer. Our mission is to be a positive lighthouse within a difficult and sensitive time of your life, and to help you feel RADIANT!
May Cause Radiance was founded by Tessa Inkster after she shared her own dance with cancer in 2016, with Hodgkin Lymphoma. Upon successfully completing treatment (just as a unicorn would…), Tessa knew she had a new life assignment: to be the messenger. Tessa knew that she could not be the only young adult within her community affected by cancer and/or going through treatment, and was yearning to connect with other fellow survivors and thrivers. There was a gap in the health support community, and she intended on filling it!
May Cause Radiance is just that…An organized way of bringing this group of young adults together, increasing education and awareness of holistic wellbeing outside of conventional medicine, providing a “safe-place” for discussion to occur and providing experience-based guidance. We have also partnered with certified and trained professionals of various services and therapies of wellbeing, and are excited to be able to offer their services to our Radiants!
If you are a young adult who was been touched by cancer – whether you are newly diagnosed, undergoing treatment, in remission (yay!) or a young adult who is supporting a loved one through CANcer – and if you would like to connect to others within the community that may share a similar journey, please check us out! And please, don’t get stuck on the term “young adult” – no matter what your age, if this space sounds like a place for you, we are more than happy to have you.
Please get at us via the website contact form or connect with us on Facebook (@maycauseradiance) or Instagram (@may.cause.radiance). Also, stay tuned to our Facebook page for the latest events, group activities and group discussion meetings.
Meet our founder, Tessa:
First of all, welcome to this space. A space where discovery
through experience is shared. A space where stories, emotions, dreams and fears are shared. A space where, much like the great mother nature, the reason we are all here on this glorious planet, the stories, the mood and the momentum are ever changing. Because growth does not occur within a static environment. However, growth does also not occur without a stable environment. That is what this is all about – finding the stability and the balance to nourish the soul, and seeking that nourishment and quenching that thirst. Through love. Through prayer. Through wellness.
While laying in bed at 3am, wide awake with achy bones after taking my first dose of filgrastim, a man-made form of a protein that stimulates the production of white blood cells in your body, I had a brain child…Over the last few months I had been inundated with medications that came with unpleasant labels attached that read things like “Warning: May cause hair loss, nausea, mouth sores, fatigue, dry skin, numbness in fingers…”, to name a few. Why, after all the years and all the money poured into western medicine, had someone not figured out how to give us GOOD side effects?! I have seen a lot of these labels over the last few years, but have yet to see one that read something to the effect of “Warning: May cause bluer eyes, softer skin, brighter smile, silkier hair…”. I mean, for someone who just found out they have CANcer, it’s the least that these chemists could do for us! But, this space is not about bashing drug chemists (I actually quite love them for what they do). It is a space dedicated to stories and experiences of sifting through the scary warning labels, the medications, the side effects and all the other “pooh poohs” of life with CANcer. A space to find ones self through these experiences. A place to find ones radiance. On that note, this space comes with a disclaimer of its own, “Warning: May Cause RADIANCE“!
If you are a CANcer Warrior, we’d love to connect! Submit a Bursary Application so we can work together to identify how we can best support you through your journey.
CANcer Society 