Featured Series
Young and Navigating Cancer
A multi-format project on what happens when health systems aren’t built for young patients with cancer.
Trailer for Washington Post short doc “One Last Wish.”
The Overview:
Young and Navigating Cancer began with one urgent question: Why are cancer rates rising among young adults, and what happens when they fall seriously ill? That question evolved into a deeply reported, multi-part series combining first-person narratives, hard data, and accountability reporting to illuminate the growing crisis of early-onset cancer.
The project spans multiple forms of immersive storytelling—two video-first interactive features, a short documentary, a podcast episode, a mini social-video series, and even a comic—turning data into human stories, exposing systemic gaps in care, and centering the voices of young adults navigating cancer.
Each format served a distinct purpose:
1
Video-led Interactive, documentary & audio:
Combines data, research, and immersive visuals to guide audiences through trends, systemic gaps, and intimate moments, bringing the crisis to life.
2
Video-led interactive:
Centers the experiences of young adults navigating cancer and creatively shows what it's like to be young, sick and undeserved.
3
Service-focused social videos & comic:
Provides practical tools and guidance for young patients navigating a health system not designed for them.
Story Highlights
Tanner and Shay’s Story
PROJECT CONTRIBUTION:
Pitched, sourced and co-reportedLead filmmakerContributing podcaster
Story Highlights
INTERACTIVE FEATURE:
229K views
As more young adults are diagnosed with cancer, Tanner and Shay are having to balance a life and death decision: whether to start a family as Tanner is dying. Short Doc:
445K views
At just 25, Tanner Martin was diagnosed with Stage 4 colorectal cancer. Amid hospital visits, endless scans and painful treatments, he and his wife, Shay, faced an agonizing question: Could they still chase their dream of starting a family?Since 2000, the rate of new cancer diagnosis for people ages 15 to 49 has climbed by 10 percent. This year, more than 200,000 people in that age group will be newly diagnosed with cancer. In this episode, Post video journalist Drea Cornejo sits down with Elahe Izadi to talk about how Drea’s own cancer diagnosis three years ago, when she was 26, motivated her to report on the realities facing more younger adults. PODCAST EPISODE:
Story Highlights
The new faces
of cancer
PROJECT CONTRIBUTION:
Pitched, sourced and reportedLead filmmakerVideo editor
Story Highlights
INTERACTIVE FEATURE:
Young cancer patients are reclaiming the narrative around illness — online, unfiltered and on their own terms. This is what living with cancer in your 20s, 30s and 40s is like. Story Highlights
mini Social video Series
PROJECT CONTRIBUTION:
Hosted, filmed and edited by me
Created in a low-fi, reporter-to-camera style, the series provided practical guidance for the young cancer community, demystifying the realities of being a young patient, and fostering a sense of connection among viewers. Part of our social experiment also included a comic, which you can read here.
Story Highlights