The financial relief of medical crowdfunding is often accompanied by feelings of shame in asking for help, a study published in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship suggests.
Researchers surveyed 46 young adult cancer survivors in the Feb. 16 study to share their perspectives and experiences with medical crowdfunding.
"Asking for help is difficult. It's even harder for a young adult who just got diagnosed with a serious illness," stated Lauren Ghazal, PhD, the paper's principal author. "This is not something a young adult cancer patient does lightly. And it's not something that necessarily should be expected — that they immediately have to disclose their whole history on a social media site to pay their bills."
The authors describe the feelings reported by respondents as the "crowdfunding compromise" — tensions between the feelings of disclosing a personal situation, the stigma of asking for help and the relief of receiving funds.