We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Simon Davies a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Simon, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Is there a heartwarming story from your career that you look back on?

I used to lead an annual conference/experiential weekend for teens and young adults with cancer. We had professional presentations about cancer and the journey that young people were going through. Every year there was a popular presentation about fertility preservation which is important for young people with cancer whose treatment can render them infertile. One year a young person came up to me and said ‘I don’t want to attend this session. I have a terminal diagnosis and this just depresses me.’ We talked more and she said that given there were 500 young people at the conference there must be others that have a terminal diagnosis and she’d like to meet them. So we put the word out and it turned out there were 8 of them and they all wanted to meet. So we set up a special session for them with a couple of health professionals on hand in case anyone needed support. The group became a fixture at the conference (with different members each year) and, typical of youth they gave it an irreverent name “Terminally Talkative”. They discussed simple but really important things like how to answer someone when they ask you how you are. Do you say ‘I’m gonna die soon’ or do you lie? They were unbelievably supportive. I remember one guy that had the same cancer that his mom had survived when she was his age and he needed help to find the right words to tell her that he wasn’t going to survive it. I’ll never forget that group. They had a profound effect on me.

Simon, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I lead Teen Cancer America, an organization that develops special cancer programs in collaborations between pediatric and adult hospitals. Teens and young adults don’t fit into either of those settings and we provide the solution that gives them age appropriate care, support and facilities. I’ve been in the US for 10 years and was previously doing the same work in the UK for 13 years since 2000. This charity was founded by Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend of the legendary Rock band The Who. Essentially we are ‘disruptors’ of traditional health structures but in the best way possible. We have helped 58 hospitals throughout America that have positively impacted hundreds of thousands of young people and their families. There are at least another 100 more to help and so we still have some way to go.
Needless to say, I have a deep personal pride in what we are achieving but, ‘dear reader’, we need all the help we can get to spread the word and help us raise more funds.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Honesty, transparency and persistence. We have to work with people and institutions that sometimes don’t want us. We have to convince them that we are there to add value and improve what they have to offer. We work hard to give them a lot of support and guidance so that they can learn to trust us.

Can you open up about how you managed the initial funding?

When people ask me how I fund the charity’s work, I usually reply ‘anything legal!’ Seriously though, it is very important that charities (and probably most small businesses) diversify their income streams. An over-dependence on any income stream, however secure it seems, is risky. The effect of the pandemic is the greatest recent example of the risks to business and charity in losing a major income source. And the best time to look for new sources of income is when you aren’t urgently in need of them. Be smart about it and imagine losing your primary sources of income before you actually do.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.teencanceramerica.org
• Instagram: teencanceramerica
• Facebook: TeenCancerAmerica
• Linkedin: Teen Cancer America
• Twitter: @TeenCancerUSA
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