Welcome! We are sorry to hear that cancer has made an appearance in your life, but we're glad that you found us. If you would like to share your story you can start by registering. From there, complete your profile, share it with your friends and family and when you are ready, you can send friend quests and openly communicate with others.

If you’re not ready to register (it’s ok – take your time), feel free to browse through the site and get inspired by reading other stories. Keep in mind, if you want to read deeper into someone’s profile, post in the Discussions section, and connect with others to engage in open communications, you will need to register unless they set their profile to public.

Good eye! We recently re-launched a brand new site, but don’t worry, we put together a guide to help you get started. Download Full Guide

YAY! We are so happy that you are interested in writing for us. Please visit our Guest Writers page.

IHadCancer is a social support network focused on helping people deal with cancer more effectively, by connecting the people who have been there with the people who are there right now – Survivors, Fighters, and Supporters. This means, that providing some basic personal information will help us match you with the people who need your help – and if you need help, the people who can help you.

Why share? To put it simply: because your story – no matter how small you think it is – can change someone’s life. In the sharing of our stories there is an inevitable sharing of strength.

Read what members are saying.

Sorry about that! Please contact us and we will promptly add what is missing.

It is up to you how much information you wish to share. We will NOT distribute any personally identifiable information to any outside source. It will remain private and under your control.

IHadCancer is for anyone who has been touched by cancer in any way. It is for:

Fighters: People who are battling cancer now.
Survivors: People who have beaten cancer.
Caregivers: Those who are on the frontlines of a loved one's battle.
Supporters: Friends, family or anyone who knows someone dealing with cancer.

Our founder, Mailet Lopez was diagnosed with cancer at age 33. She had a great doctor and very supportive family and friends, but still found herself overwhelmed and alone in fighting the disease. She wanted to connect with someone who she could relate to – someone around her age, from the same location, someone with a similar background – but there was no easy way to do so. As the co-founder of an award winning digital media agency, Squeaky Wheel Media, she used her skills in website usability and the resources of her company to create IHadCancer. To read more about Mailet & her story, check out the About section of the site.

After Mailet was diagnosed, she often heard the words "You have cancer. You could die." She decided to take a positive attitude and told these people, "No. I had cancer." This mentality allowed Mailet to stay hopeful of the future and was essential in her fight against cancer. The name IHadCancer came from the hope that this kind of positive thinking could help others dealing with cancer as well.

IHadCancer is a comprehensive social networking site with the sole mission of building a community among cancer patient, survivors, their friends and supporters. IHadCancer harnesses the power of social media to connect you with someone who’s been in your shoes.

IHadCancer was not only founded by a cancer survivor, but it was also built by a team of digital pioneers who leveraged years of experience to provide a best in class service.

Yes. To participate and join the IHadCancer community you must be 13 years of age or older. However, since cancer knows no age and children under the age of 13 are affected, those under the age limit can talk to their parents or legal guardians about having them share their story.

No, IHadCancer is completely free to use.            

IHadCancer is not a non-profit. This was a difficult decision to make, but in the end, it became clear that we would not be able to fulfill our top priority - providing the best service possible to make dealing with cancer easier - if we were splitting our efforts with fundraising. We made this choice so we could make IHadCancer the best service possible for you.

Your username serves multiple purposes:

If you prefer to keep your name private from anyone you’re not connected to you can opt to use your username instead. You can decide this during the registration process or change your settings once you log in.

Your username also serves as your own personal URL (example: www.IHadCancer.com/YOUR-USERNAME) making it easier to share with your family and friends.

You can use your username or email address to log in to the site.

A username CANNOT be changed, so choose wisely.

First, head over to the “Find Someone” page, where you can search by age, gender, type of cancer, year diagnosed, location and type of user. Connect with other users by click the “Connect” button on their profile. Or, you can start reading blogs, discussion questions and dear cancer posts to see who you can relate to, and connect with them that way!

If you are a brand new member and you don’t see any activity on your newsfeed, that means you don’t have enough active connections yet. Once you start making friends who share update, it will all appear on that page, as well as your own activity. If you were a member on the older version of IHadCancer, none of your activity was erased, but it was not recorded on this page. All of your future activity, and that of your connections, will populate here soon.

If you have identified a user submitting spam, scam, or general inappropriate use of site, please contact us immediately by writing to us at feedback@ihadcancer.com. We have many systems in place to identify this type of behavior, but we appreciate all of your help in identifying any user who should not be here.

You can share information, view each other’s full profiles and openly communicate with one another.        

The Dear Cancer section is for sending a message to cancer. Here you can say whatever you feel like saying to cancer and get it off your chest while also getting the support of the full community. To participate you will need to be registered. Go on give it a try.

You can view the discussions and topics on IHadCancer at anytime. However, you can only post to the Discussions section after you register. You can begin by asking a new question or searching what others are saying.

Our new notifications section will alert you anytime you receive a comment or a hug on any of your activity. You will see an exclamation point on top of the icon whenever there is a new notification.        

Our team of community managers moderates all site activity prevent any negative, slandering or offensive comments and to ensure the absence of medical propaganda. If you see something that you don’t like, please let us know.

Anyone who is on the site for the wrong reason will be banned from the site. A Report Abuse link is available from all profiles. If you see anything inappropriate please let us know.

This is your story. It is up to you how much information you choose to share - as much or as little you would like. Keep in mind that you can control you sees this information. You can set your profile to open (completely public), IHC Only (anyone registered for IHC) or IHC Connections only (only people you've sent or accepted a connection request from on IHadCancer) .

Yes! Please encourage friends and family to sign up as supporters or caregivers. Their stories are important too.            

Currently we are not partnered or affiliated with any company. We aim to be very selective of who we partner with to allow maximum privacy and minimum disturbance for our users. If there are partnerships you think we should be associated with email us and we’ll look into it.