By Ellen LaPointe | VP of Strategic Partnerships
It was “love at first user test” when we HopeLab-ers met Saret. Direct input from our “customers” – young people themselves – is a key part of our product development work at HopeLab, and this summer Saret worked with us as an intern and participated in research we’re conducting to inform the next version of the Re-Mission video game.
Saret’s going to be a high school senior this fall. She’s 17, bright, loves learning about DNA and lounging by the poolside. Saret is also a cancer survivor. At age 16, she was diagnosed and treated for leukemia, a disease she didn’t even know was a type of cancer.
Saret tells us, “Being diagnosed with cancer was something I never thought would happen to me, especially at 16. Dealing with it was not easy because I was too weak. After my first round of chemo, I couldn’t even walk. And staying at the hospital for six months wasn’t the way I expected being 16 would be like.”
The HopeLab appeal for her? Saret wants to help people who are going through a similar experience that she went through, and she feels that HopeLab is doing “something that will actually help young people cope with cancer.”
Saret says, “I felt like I actually understood cancer and how chemo works [by playing Re-Mission]. Because when you’re at the hospital, the doctors try to explain it to you, but Re-Mission shows you exactly what happens when you are getting chemo.”
It’s young people like Saret, who help us create fun, effective products that appeal to our customers and that make positive change. Thanks Saret!
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
