Next Step needs $30,000 to reach their fundraising goal this holiday season. $30,000 will fund one 4-day Next Step Campference next year. Please consider donating to the 2023 Next Step Annual Fund so they can offer their Campference program to even more teens and young adults living with a chronic illness, like me.
When I received my brain tumor diagnosis, I was starting down the path of becoming a community advocate and an activist. I was suddenly thrown off course, I had to focus on my survival, on scheduling that next scan or doctor’s visit. I had to put my life on hold.
Cancer treatment creates its own little universe and it’s nearly impossible to see outside of it. I had been isolated for so long and I didn’t have any way of reconnecting with my old life. Then I attended my first Next Step Campference.
“When I started at Next Step I didn’t believe in myself, now I do.” – Naia-
I had entered a space with other people who did get me, they were able to see everything that I had gone through and actually see me. After attending a survivor panel at Campference, I saw other young people taking back control of their lives despite having a chronic illness and realized that I didn’t need to let my fears and anxiety surrounding my brain tumor dictate the course of my life.
“I am doing what I want to be doing. I am doing advocacy and activism, and community organizing, and I am good at it.” -Naia-
It was in the Next Step space that I was able to start putting the pieces together and gain the self-confidence to get back on track. That year I went back to school and I started that activism and community organizing. That first semester back at school I became one of the leaders of a disability student group, and that Spring I helped organize a student movement that saved our college from being taken over in a merger.
Please consider donating to the 2023 Next Step Annual Fund so more young people can experience the magic of their Campference program and gain the confidence to follow their dreams, like you did for me.
Thank you and Happy Holidays,
Naia
