Connecting Champions
Connecting Champions brings young people who have or had cancer together with a mentor or ‘hero’ who shares their interests and passions. The programme is designed to offer encouragement, inspiration and a positive distraction during or after cancer treatment.
Rather than focusing on illness, Connecting Champions focuses on what matters to each young person – their interests, creativity, goals, and sense of identity.
What is Connecting Champions?
Connecting Champions is a one-to-one mentoring and connection programme. Young people are matched with a mentor from a field they are passionate about. This could be sport, music, art, make-up and beauty or other areas that inspire them
Mentors may range from sporting personalities and artists to musicians, make-up artists or professionals with lived experience and enthusiasm for their field.
Connections take place online, making the programme accessible no matter where a young person lives or what stage of treatment or recovery they are in. And a member of Childhood Cancer Ireland staff will always be on the call too.
Why it matters
A cancer diagnosis disrupts everyday life, confidence, and plans for the future. Connecting Champions offers young people:
- Encouragement from someone who believes in them
- Distraction through shared interests and creative conversation
- Motivation to explore their passions
- Connection beyond clinical settings
By meeting someone who shares what they love, young people are reminded that they are more than their diagnosis.
Who is it for?
Connecting Champions is for:
- Young people who have cancer or have previously had cancer.
- The age range is approximately 12 – 24, but please get in touch if you know of a younger child who you feel would benefit from the programme.
- Young people looking for encouragement, inspiration, or a positive focus
- Young people who want to connect with someone from a field they care about
The programme is flexible and tailored to each young person’s needs, interests and circumstances.
Who are the mentors?
Mentors are people who:
- Share a passion or career interest with the young person
- Want to encourage, inspire, and uplift
- Are happy to offer time, conversation, and support
- They may be established professionals, creatives, athletes, or individuals with strong experience in their field.
- What matters most is enthusiasm, kindness, and a genuine desire to connect.
What does a connection look like?
Each connection is shaped around the young person. This might include:
- Informal conversations about shared interests
- Talking about journeys, challenges, and successes
- Creative encouragement or advice
- A positive space away from medical appointments and routines
- It may include insights into a career path
- The aim is not formal coaching or therapy, but meaningful human connection.
Get Involved
For mentors
You can support a young person by sharing what you love and what you’ve learned along the way. If you’re passionate about encouraging others and want to make a difference, we’d love to hear from you.
For young people
If you have or had cancer and would like to connect with someone who shares your interests, Connecting Champions could be for you.
The story of Connecting Champions
Childhood Cancer Ireland began exploring the idea of a mentoring and connection programme after our Ambassador, Ireland and Leinster Rugby player Hugo Keenan, began connecting with young people at our annual family day, and later through online conversations.
These connections brought distraction, enjoyment and encouragement to young people and their families during an incredibly difficult time. Seeing the positive impact of these relationships highlighted the power of shared interests and meaningful connection.
Building on this experience, Childhood Cancer Ireland developed a partnership with Connecting Champions, a not-for-profit organisation based in the United States. Since 2011, Connecting Champions has been supporting young people to pursue their passions by connecting them with mentors and role models who inspire and encourage them, through its evidence-based programme.
Together, this partnership brings the Connecting Champions programme to young people in Ireland, creating opportunities for encouragement, motivation, and connection through shared passions.
Connecting Champions
Because shared passions can inspire confidence, motivation, and hope, one connection at a time.
