If you don’t know who Drew Olanoff is then you probably don’t spend much time on Twitter do you?
The accidental visionary behind Blame Drews Cancer took many of us on an emotional ride in 2009 as he personally battled cancer. However beyond his personal fight he also took the streets, or to the tweets I should say. Drew raised EPIC amounts of awareness and some significant money for the Livestrong foundation along the way. You can catch up with our previous coverage of Drew here, here and here.
I heard a wonderful rumor that Drew was back in Los Angeles so I caught up with him for a few questions. Let’s see what’s new in his ever changing and increasingly awesome world.
1. You had a huge year in 2009, what single moment really stands out to you?
I think the moment that stood out the most was how quickly BlameDrewsCancer.com got embraced and supported. My original blog post didn’t have the title “I have Cancer”, I didn’t tweet “I have cancer”, just tweeted out the link. It spread like wildfire. It meant people actually read what I wrote and it struck a cord.
2. And how are you doing these days, health wise?
I’m doing well. Had a biopsy a month ago and it didn’t go so great…a salivary gland was removed instead of a lymph node. Kind of scared me, but it seems like my ability to spit is fine ;) Feeling better and better every day, more energy, I feel more like “myself”. Mentally, I’m beat. There’s a certain sense of “what just happened???”, but overall I have a way clearer perspective on life.
3. I hear you are living in LA now, whats are you up to?
Indeed, I’m in Marina del Rey (LOVE THE WEATHER!). I’m Director of Community at GOGII, creators of the free texting app textPlus (iPhone, Touch, Android, Blackberry soon). I worked here during my chemo treatments back home. They were amazing to me. I was diagnosed literally weeks after I was hired. They stood by me then, and stand by me now. I am very blessed and I love what I do.
4. Who inspires you?
People who don’t take no for an answer. Anyone who has a passion to do whatever it is that makes them feel happy and centered. If that’s volunteering, great. If that’s building houses, awesome. Whatever it is, doing it and not asking permission inspires me. I came up with the idea for BlameDrewsCancer before I was officially diagnosed. I knew that if I had to go through this, I was going to fight back the best way I knew how.
5. What’s next for drew?
Welp, Drew Carey now owns the Twitter name @Drew – I’m getting used to being @ThatDrew – sounds silly, but I feel tied to the “name”, since I went through such a difficult time with it and the folks on Twitter played such an integral part in my treatment and now healing. But a million bucks for LIVESTRONG? Not so bad.
Other than continuing to fundraise and help others who are battling cancer (I get emails and calls daily..and welcome them to call me at (623)-BLAMEIT any time), I have a few pet web projects that I’ve decided to put into action after sitting on them for a few years. I have a project underway that I came up with 2 1/2 years ago and it still excites me, which means its time to build.
Afterall, tomorrow is never promised, and if you don’t do, you’re done.
Thanks for taking the time to chat with us Drew, and welcome back to lalaland.
(Top photo by: KK)
