GoFundMe®: Crowdfunding Among Young Adult Patients With Cancer

Young adults (YAs) with cancer aged 18-39 years often experience financial stressors and search for alternative solutions, such as crowdfunding, to make ends meet. YAs experience financial stressors that may be more severe than those of middle-aged or older adult patients.

This article explores how YAs use GoFundMe® to financially support themselves during cancer treatment.

For this retrospective descriptive mixed-methods study, 50 campaigns met inclusion criteria. The research team extracted data manually and by using Python. Team members conducted descriptive analyses and qualitative coding.

GoFundMe recipients were mostly female, aged in their late 20s, and diagnosed with breast, brain, colorectal, or other cancer or leukemia. Campaign goals ranged from $2,488 to $1,243,900, and about half met or exceeded their goal (n = 23). Campaigns requested money to cover direct and indirect costs of treatment as well as daily expenses, experimental care, complementary and alternative medicine, scientifically unproven treatments, travel experiences for the patient/family to make memories, and end-of-life or funeral expenses.