Letter From The Editor

Christa Wittmier and Daniel Gray met in 2006 — after circling the periphery of one another’s social circles for some time — at the tail end of a night out at the now-closed Thirtyninehotel. It was brief, chance meeting, but they stayed friends throughout the years — through their stint as roommates, through their blossoming careers, and more recently, through both of them battling cancer.

In their fight against cancer, they’ve helped each other, sharing information on treatments, trading advice about diets. And now, they’re extending their knowledge to other cancer patients through their nonprofit Aloha Cancer Project, which launches Feb. 6. Aloha Cancer Project is designed as a one-stop shop for resources on things like cancer-friendly diets and alternative treatments. It’s an easy first step for newly diagnosed patients.

I had the chance to meet with them in the weeks leading up to the project’s launch to talk about the organization, their goals and their lives post-cancer diagnosis in general.

Aloha Cancer Project, they say, is something that they both want to focus on moving forward. That’s one thing that they agree they’ve learned through all of this — that life should really be about the passions and people you truly care about. There’s no time, they’ve come to realize, for anything else.

To learn more about Aloha Cancer Project, read on.