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The Cancertainer's Story: Meet Matthew

Submitted by Tamara Perkins

Born in Brooklyn, New York and raised on Staten Island (an outer borough of New York City), Matthew discovered the piano one day during a birthday party in 5th grade when he watched one of his friends play and get all the attention. He started taking classical lessons at the age of 11 at the behest of his mother, who was also an adept pianist.

Alongside his classical interests, Matthew took jazz/pop lessons, gaining proficiency in performing the American classics (Porter, Berlin, Kern and Gershwin), Broadway (Loewe, Sondheim, Schwartz) and rock/pop Pianists (Billy Joel, Bruce Hornsby.) By 16, he was playing professionally at restaurants and for private celebrations.

Matthew attended Binghamton University in upstate New York and was planning on pursuing a lifelong career in film scoring. It was at college that he studied composition, orchestration and conducting. A pianist for the Harpur Jazz Ensemble, Matthew also helmed band pits for community theater productions and served as a well-regarded rehearsal and recital pianist for the fine arts community. He picked up skills in electronica, MIDI, new age and ambient genres and incorporated them into what would become his own unique style of composition.

In August of 1995, at the onset of his senior year at Binghamton University, Matthew began to experience strange, subtle headaches and a pain in his left hand. These symptoms worsened while going undiagnosed for almost 6 months, at which point he had lost all fine motor coordination in his left hand, his dominant hand, and could no longer write, type or perform on the piano.

Scheduled to graduate with a BA in interdisciplinary studies (music, theater. computer science and sociology) Matthew Zachary was 21 years old when he was diagnosed with a medulloblastoma (a rare and malignant pediatric brain tumor) on December 27, 1995. By this time, in addition to the detriments in his lefthand, he was experiencing blurred vision, slurred speech and fainting spells.

Having lost the capacity to play the piano, Matthew was told by his doctors that he would be lucky to walk—let alone perform on the piano—again.

Matthew refused to give up hope and stayed connected to the things that had meaning in his life: his family, his friends and his music. Through an eight-hour surgery and months of debilitating post-operative cancer treatments,

Fighting for his life, Matthew wrote music in his head and struggled to continue composing and playing, even if only for a few minutes a day with only his right hand. That music eventually became Scribblings and Every Step of The Way, the two critically acclaimed and award-winning solo piano albums inspired by his experiences.

In addition to re-learning how to walk and how to swallow, Matthew spent the ensuing years retraining his atrophied left hand from scratch, trying to regain some of the skills and dexterity that his 10 years of classical training had brought him—and that his cancer took away.

Now, after more than 14 years in remission, Matthew has beaten the odds and proven that there can be life after cancer. Having produced and released two hit solo piano albums with a third on the way, he has taken his place as a well-respected member of the indie-music community and a nationally accredited public "cancertainer."

The music Matthew originally wrote to help heal himself is now being used to help bring hope and comfort to many thousands. His album Scribblings has been distributed throughout scores of hospitals, hospices, wellness clinics and cancer treatment centers in the United States and Canada and is being used as both therapy and/or an emotional support tool by caregivers at these institutions.

Matthew's story is triumph over tragedy in the face of adversity. His message—to "get busy living"—is one of hope and inspiration. Matthew firmly believes that with courage, strength and determination, everyone has the power to get busy living through and beyond their darkest hours.

As the founder of the I'm Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation (i[2]y), the nation's leading grassroots advocate for young adults with cancer, Matthew has taken his place as a national spokesman for his own generation's unique fight for equity within the cancer continuum. He fights for improved access to survivorship reources and is fostering a national movement that is finally giving voice to the young adult community.

Matthew believes in miracles. His being here is one of them.

Listen to Matthew: Cancer In Generation X/Y – Does Anyone Care?

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