About the Alliance
The Inspiration Behind the Alliance
About Reid Sacco
The Alliance is named for Reid Robert Sacco, who lost his life
in April 2005 to cancer. He was only 20 years old.
Reid was a remarkable young man.
Unassuming, humble and gregarious. Reid was an accomplished scholar, musician, competitive swimmer, and sailor.
Cancer stole from this world a genuine hero, like so many AYAs like Reid.
During his courageous two-year battle, Reid and his family learned
first-hand of the tragic gaps that faced AYAs diagnosed with cancer.
During his cancer battle, Reid continued to teach children and teens to sail at the Kennebunk Beach Improvement Association summer program.
Reflecting on his own life he told us,
"Life is like sailing. Change can upon you suddenly. But just because you sometimes have to alter your course, you don't have to stop sailing."
Hence, the Alliance motto,
"Altering the Course of Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer"
The symbol of the Alliance is always a sailboat.
Alliance Focus
Adolescents and young adults diagnosed with cancer have long been an underserved population of cancer patients, yet AYAs compose what we would argue is the most productive and most promising segment of our society.
AYAs are perched at a pivotal point in life. The path that lies ahead is the one on which they will launch their careers and professions, establish their financial independence, start their own families, and expand their professional and social networks and advocations. For an adolescent or young adult stricken with cancer that path is derailed or, at best, temporarily put on-hold. Our dream is to make sure that all AYAs diagnosed with cancers will survive and thrive and can quickly resume life as it was meant to be.
Mission & Vision
It is the Mission of the Alliance to support the launch and growth of hospital-based programs chartered and designed to address the unmet needs of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer patients and survivors.
The Alliance Vision is of the day when the cancers striking AYAs are routinely curable or entirely preventable.
Alliance Pillars
Providing specialized and age-appropriate care, treatment and resources to AYA cancer patients and AYA cancer survivors
Raising awareness among AYAs, among medical professionals, and among the general public about AYA cancer, its challenges, and the resources now available.
Closing the gap between pediatric oncology and adult oncology, a gap into which AYAs cancer patients too often fell.
Expanding access for AYAs to potentially life-saving clinical trials for new medicines, immunotherapies and other treatments.
Leading the way in developing new and innovative models-of-care, protocols, programs and approaches for treating AYAs diagnosed with cancer as children or as AYAs.
Advocating on behalf AYA cancer patients and survivors for the expansion of research into what makes cancer in AYAs different from those in children and older adults.