Providing cancer support personalized to your needs and connecting you with community.

Halla Lee Kharfan

Who went through her own cancer journey and found that there wasn't enough support for her diagnosis, so she decided to make a platform where seeking support is easily accessible and customized to meet the needs of the user.

Two years ago, I was diagnosed with Leiomyosarcoma. At the time I found my tumor, I was 20 and attending university. Learning about my diagnosis uprooted my whole life, and I made the difficult decision to leave university and go home to be with my family and deal with my health issues head-on. This entire process was terrifying and overwhelming, considering my diagnosis was so rare and known to be an aggressive cancer...

Two years ago, I was diagnosed with Leiomyosarcoma. At the time I found my tumor, I was 20 and attending university. Learning about my diagnosis uprooted my whole life, and I made the difficult decision to leave university and go home to be with my family and deal with my health issues head-on. This entire process was terrifying and overwhelming, considering my diagnosis was so rare and known to be an aggressive cancer. At the time of my diagnosis, I felt scared and lonely due to all the stigma surrounding my diagnosis. Through learning of these unfavorable outcomes and daunting statistics, I knew this would be a difficult journey. So, I began seeking online support as I wanted to gain more information about specific treatments and listen to others who had gone through similar things, hoping to gain reassurance that surviving this was possible. However, because of the rarity of my diagnosis, it was tough for me to find any group to join, as many of the online support groups are very diagnosis-specific, and there were few to no groups for Leiomyosarcoma. With these limited resources, finding online support was more complicated than I imagined initially. It took me quite a while and a very in-depth online search to find one active site catering to my diagnosis.
Despite this, the site I joined rarely had active users, and there were significant time gaps when people would respond and post. Another factor was that many of these individuals on this site were quite a bit older than me and in different stages of life.
However, due to my limited options for online support, I could not find exactly what I was looking for, and support was not readily available, which I believed should be. Cancer is so much more than just a diagnosis, and finding support through anyone going through it, regardless of whether you have the same Cancer, is something I believe would help so many, as I know it would've helped me along my journey. Learning and going through a cancer diagnosis is complex and can be a lonely road, and that's what I initially faced when searching for online support. Months later, after I decided upon a course of treatment and underwent surgery to remove my tumor, I found a girl who was close in age to me who also was battling Cancer. We didn't talk constantly, but checking in once in a while, seeing that we were both able to live life and survive Cancer, was enough support in itself for me. I felt strong and capable of living through this disease and that I didn't need to be defined by it. That feeling of not being alone really helped me along my healing journey. Sadly, last year, she passed away, but I am still here living life and wanting to provide support in the same way she helped me. I created an app to be open to everyone battling Cancer or in remission. My goal in creating this app is to help those who feel alone or scared find a community and group of people who get it and face similar hardships. Know that you are not alone and can survive this, even if it is scary. I want to inspire others and show them that you are ok and you are not your diagnosis. It aims to tailor to every single individual's needs when seeking out support, no matter what that may look like to them. No matter your diagnosis or where you are along your cancer journey, CCommunity is here to be your guide in finding the support you need.