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One Connection

Someone who
understands.

1:1 peer support for people going through cancer.
Matched with someone who has been through it.

Coming 2026

Research Baseline

One verified study anchors the public evidence on this page.

One Connection is still in development. Until partner names, programme reports, and outcome metrics are reviewed and approved for public use, this page only cites verified external literature and generic programme framing.

El-Jawahri et al. · Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation · 2018 Nov

Impact of Psychological Distress on Quality of Life, Functional Status, and Survival in Patients with Chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease.

Among patients with chronic GVHD (N=482), self-reported depression was associated with lower overall survival (hazard ratio 1.62; P=.020).

Cohort: Chronic GVHD Consortium prospective observational multicentre cohort. PMID 30031937. DOI 10.1016/j.bbmt.2018.07.020.

N=482 Study sample
Hazard ratio 1.62 Overall survival — Self-reported depression associated with lower overall survival
P=.020 Statistical significance
View the PubMed record

Pilot Pathway

The first pilot is designed around a simple progression.

Start with a referral or self-sign-up. Review for fit and safeguarding. Make a match based on lived experience and treatment context. Support the first conversation. Then step back so the relationship can become its own human connection.

Referral
Matching
First call
Follow-up
Independent connection

We are intentionally publishing the pathway before publishing programme-specific results. The sequence is part of the design brief, not a claim that outcomes have already been measured.

What We Are Building

What 1:1 video calls with someone who has been through cancer. Not a forum. Not a chatbot. A person.
Matched Paired by cancer type, treatment, and experience. Not random.
Language Real-time translation. Your buddy speaks one language. You speak another. It works.
Journeys Structured milestones from first call to independent connection.
Cost Free. Always. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

What This Is Not

Not therapy.

Your buddy is not a counsellor. They are someone who has been where you are now. They listen because they remember.

Not a support group.

One person talking to one other person. No group dynamics. No performing for a room.

Not clinical.

No case notes. No reports. A conversation between two people who understand each other.

Design Priorities

Ten things the pilot is being designed to get right.

01 Matching by diagnosis, treatment stage, and lived experience
02 Video-first support instead of anonymous message boards
03 Real-time translation for cross-language matching
04 Structured journeys from introduction to independent connection
05 Caregiver pathways after the core participant pilot is stable
06 Outcome tracking only after review and approval
07 Cross-border access without paywalls
08 Clear boundaries between peer support and clinical care
09 Young adult and transplant-specific pathways when validated
10 Simple escalation paths when someone needs more than peer support

One Connection starts from lived experience: treatment may end, but the isolation after treatment often does not. The programme exists to reduce that gap without pretending peer support is the same thing as therapy or clinical follow-up.

That is why the public version of this page stays narrow. We are showing the problem the programme is trying to address, the pilot we are building, and the external evidence we have verified. We are not publishing invented certainty.

We are looking for pilot partners.

The programme is still in development. That means we can talk publicly about the model, the external literature we have verified, and the kinds of organisations we want to build with. It does not mean we can publish partner rosters, outcome metrics, or report titles before they exist and are approved.

No programme-specific metrics are approved for publication yet.

We will add outcome and participation metrics only after they are reviewed and approved for web use.

No One Connection publications are approved for public listing yet.

This programme does not currently have approved TEEI publications, preprints, or report titles.

Pilot partners are not yet approved for public listing.

We are in early conversations, but no institution names are approved for publication on this page.

We are seeking early partners to co-design the pilot and challenge the assumptions before anything is presented as a result.

Transplant centres Cancer nonprofits Researchers

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We will let you know when One Connection launches. Nothing else.

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Support this programme

One Connection is free for
every person who needs it.

Building peer support infrastructure for cancer patients takes resources. Your donation goes directly to matching people going through cancer with someone who has been through it.

Donate to One Connection

Tax-deductible via Every.org · The Educational Equality Institute is a 501(c)(3)

Programme Overview

One Connection 2026

Current programme overview, pilot model, technology direction, and contact details.

Download the programme overview (PDF)

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