David Warren, co-founder of the nonprofit organization TaketheFight, talked to Penn students on Wednesday about a two-year fellowship program that launched last week. | Courtesy of David Warren
David Warren, co-founder of the nonprofit organization TaketheFight, visited Penn on Wednesday to recruit students for a two-year fellowship program launched last week. TaketheFight aims to provide moral support to cancer patients by pairing them with college students who become responsible for helping the patients stay informed about when their doctor’s appointments are, helping them remember what medications to take and helping them fill out their paperwork.
“That social support is important. You are going to get really close with your patient,” Warren said. “You’ll want to help your patient, but you’ll also want to spend time with them.”
Warren was inspired to start the nonprofit while watching his dad receive treatment for a brain tumor that developed into cancer. He was disenchanted by the fact that his dad and his doctors had little face-to-face interaction, and he came to realize that the doctors simply did not have enough time to thoroughly examine and properly treat his dad’s individual case.
Warren said he wished he had medical knowledge so that he could compensate for the lack of individual attention his dad was receiving from his doctors — but soon realized that he could help in other ways.
“The fact that I was an outsider became a bit of a blessing, eventually,” Warren said.
Through the program, Warren hopes to encourage students to help cancer patients in the same way that he helped his dad.
Students who complete the two-year fellowship are granted a full time position at TaketheFight. The ultimate goal of the fellowship is for students to help cancer patients fight their illness and receive firsthand knowledge of the healthcare system. When they are finished with their first year, students have presumably acquired knowledge about the drawbacks of the healthcare system and then have the capacity to ignite systemic change.
During the second year of the fellowship, students present solutions to the problems within the healthcare system that they witnessed during their first year. Collaboratively, the TaketheFight team chooses the most promising proposal and develops it.
TaketheFight is not looking for a team full of pre-medicine students. Instead, it seeks students from different academic backgrounds to foster diverse perspectives. Most importantly, Warren said, the program hopes to find students who are innovative and capable of working well with others.
However, Warren stressed that working at TaketheFight is not be a suitable job for everyone — members need an emotional and professional commitment to their work to be able to survive the long hours.
“We are here because we care, that is why we work those hours. It is fun, but we believe in the mission,” Warren said.
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