American Cancer Society Launches New Video Community

SharingHope.TV Provides a Place for People to Share Cancer Stories

February, 2008 - The American Cancer Society is launching a new Web community that will help connect cancer survivors, their friends and family members through the sharing of user-generated videos, photos, music and artwork. SharingHope.tv allows users to create an account and upload video, audio, photos and artwork in order to tell their stories of cancer in ways that work best for them. Visitors to the site can view the content, share what they like with others, or find hope and inspiration for their own fight against cancer.

Cancer survivors and their loved ones are already avid users of online community Web sites, and with SharingHope.tv, the American Cancer Society hopes to engage new and existing users of online media. "Many people share their stories of cancer on Web sites like You Tube, Flickr, and personal blogs. Now they have a chance to come together in a single online community, with an organization and an audience that really cares about cancer," said David Neff, American Cancer Society High Plains Division director of web and interactive strategy.

 The new video community is innovative for a non-profit organization because it relies almost completely on people outside of the organization to create its content. "This site is not about the American Cancer Society - it's about the people cancer affects. We are providing a forum for people to share their stories, their heartbreaks, their triumphs and joys," Neff said.

For individuals who have never uploaded a video, SharingHope.tv walks them through the steps with its own user-friendly instructional videos. The online community has other unique features, like free background music for videos, created by independent artists. "No one knows more about cancer than the people living with it. We want to make it easy and even fun for that knowledge to be shared." Neff said.

SharingHope.tv can be found at www.sharinghope.tv.

Contact:

Connie Reece
Every Dot Connects
connie.reece@SharingHope.TV
512.394.4575

About the American Cancer Society

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