A More Than Medicine Installment

This Pride Month, we want to acknowledge the LGBTQIA+ members of our community–including children, teens, young adults, siblings, caregivers, volunteers, and staff whose lives have also been touched by childhood cancer.

One of the realities we have come to recognize is that there are very few spaces specifically created for LGBTQIA+ youth and young adults impacted by cancer. Many young people navigate questions of identity, belonging, and acceptance while also carrying the weight of diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, grief, or caregiving. Too often, they are asked to choose which part of their story is seen.

A More Than Medicine Installment

Recently, after spending time talking with some of our incredible Ukandu volunteers about grief, loss, and the experiences so many families in our community carry, I found myself continuing to think about grief long after the conversation ended. Not just grief after death, but the quieter forms of grief that families living with serious illness often carry every single day.

A More Than Medicine Installment

I’ve worked in mental health in some capacity for more than 20 years now. Different settings. Different communities. Different ages and populations. Hospitals, schools, nonprofits, clinics, camps, crisis moments, ordinary moments. And through all of it, one thing has remained true: people need each other.

Not perfectly. Not with the right words all the time. But consistently, honestly, and humanly.

A More Than Medicine Installment

There are moments in healthcare that change the way you understand the world, not just as a clinician, but as a person. But for many families, that understanding does not begin in a hospital or a training program. It begins in the quiet, disorienting space where life first shifts: when something feels wrong, when answers are not yet clear, when uncertainty settles into everyday routines.

A More Than Medicine Installment

Forty years ago, when Ukandu was conceived, the average five-year relative survival rate for a child diagnosed with cancer was around 58%. Today, that rate has risen to approximately 85%. This is a testament to decades of advances in treatment and supportive care. In the United States alone, more than half a million people are living as childhood cancer survivors, and that number continues to grow each year. 

And yet, even as survival rates improve, the journey does not end at remission.

We’re proud to introduce More Than Medicine, a blog series created and curated by our Clinical Director, Dr. Joel Lampert, PsyD. This series reflects the heart of our work and a simple truth we see every day: healing from childhood cancer takes more than medical treatment alone. It requires community, support, and moments of joy. Because medicine treats cancer. But healing takes more than medicine.

We’re thrilled to announce Wine & Dine for Hope & Joy 2026 - our signature annual fundraising event and one of Portland’s most meaningful culinary celebrations. Join us on Friday, May 8, from 5–9 p.m. at The Redd on Salmon for an evening that blends top-tier food and wine with extraordinary impact. All funds raised support Ukandu programming, which is offered 100% free of charge for the families we serve.

2026 marks Ukandu’s 40th anniversary. It will also mark the largest expansion in Ukandu programming, with the opening of The Ukandu Loft, which will serve as Ukandu’s headquarters and a welcoming hub for families impacted by childhood cancer.

Carrot Top first got involved in 2015 as a camper. She started volunteering shortly after when she aged out. We are so thankful to have her as a part of our volunteer family!