June is National Cancer Survivors Month, and while much media attention and financial resources are focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, The Who‘s Roger Daltrey is urging people also to keep supporting charities like his Teen Cancer America organization.

Teen Cancer America funds the creation of designated social areas in hospitals geared toward adolescents and young adults with the disease. Much of the money for the charity has come from benefit concerts organized by Daltrey, many of them headlined by his famous band, although, obviously, all shows have been put on hold because of the coronavirus crisis.

“[M]ost of our funding is events-based and all events have been canceled,” Daltrey explains to ABC Audio. “So, we’re kind of…treading water, trying to keep our head above water, and we want to be here at the end of this situation that we’re in at the moment. So, I’m just doing anything I can just to get people to recognize this issue for this age group.”

Daltrey co-founded Teen Cancer America with his Who band mate Pete Townshend in 2012, and Roger also has served as patron for a similar charity, the U.K.-based Teenage Cancer Trust, for decades. The 76-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer maintains that teen and young-adult cancer patients do better when they have access to hospital recreational areas where they can socialize with people in their own age group.

“You know, the best therapist for a teenager with cancer is another teenager with cancer,” Daltrey says. “And it’s amazing how they support [each other]. They’re incredible.”

Roger also is promoting the recently launched website COVIDAYACancer.org, which shares coronavirus-related resources and information for adolescent and young-adult cancer patients and healthcare professionals who aid young people with the disease.

By Matt Friedlander
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