Founded in 2010, the Matt Cook Foundation’s mandate is to make life a little more normal for young adults as they fight cancer.

We know young adults fighting cancer face unique challenges, because we’ve seen them: imagine knowing your friends are at a concert or planning a camping trip, and you can’t go; imagine dropping out of university because you’re too tired to keep up with your studies; imagine it’s too risky to go to a movie, because chemotherapy has compromised your immune system; imagine you can’t play hockey, like Matthew, because you’ve lost your leg to cancer.

Imagine if everything you took for granted was all of a sudden taken away. Our goal is to give a small part of it back.

Since 2013, we’ve delivered the Matt Cook Foundation Cares Package to young adults fighting cancer at Edmonton’s Cross Cancer Institute. Each package contains items that help make their stay in the hospital a little more comfortable, and that connect them to their friends and family: a blanket to keep them warm, an iPad to watch movies and Skype with friends, Beats headphones to tune out, and much more.

So, why this stuff? Because it’s the same stuff that made Matt a little more comfortable, when he was in the hospital.

We’ll continue until we’re not needed anymore. We also have plans to do more, and whether we expand our program across Canada, or concentrate on other initiatives, our goal will be the same: making life a little easier for young adults with cancer.