• The first step is to SIGN UP online to join 2Unstoppable.  You will be asked to create a username and password, and enter your birth date and zip code.   Please don’t use your email as your username.
• You will receive a confirmation email with a link.  Click the link to proceed directly to the series of screens to create your personal profile.  
• You will be asked questions to help members get to know you, such as:  your fitness preferences and goals, criteria for selecting a buddy, and any information you would like to share about your cancer history.  Please include a photo as this will help other women connect with you and feel more comfortable. 
• All information that you enter on your profile can be seen by other members and helps them get to know you better so that your ideal buddy can find you.  
• A system moderator will then approve your profile.  This is an important step to ensure the integrity of the people who are requesting to join.  
• Within 24 hours (likely much sooner) from the time you submitted your profile you will receive an email notification that your profile has been approved.  
• Select the link in your email and you will be directed to the LOG IN screen, where you will enter your user name and password.
• You will be presented with a display of all current members.  You can select individual profiles to review or limit your display using the age and zip code filters.    
• Once you find someone you would like to get to know,  send her a message using  the purple message button and she will receive an email notification that you have contacted her.  
• Now it’s up both of you to get to know each other and to decide how to get started (in person or virtually).
• Remember:  Check back often as new members will be signing up daily.

2Unstoppable members are not required to upload a photo, but it is highly recommended.  Seeing a face on the profile helps tremendously in enabling women to feel safe and secure in meeting one another. We do not anticipate that your photo is being used to directly match you to an exercise partner, but rather to instill a sense of comfort and familiarity.

You can update your profile and picture at any time.  Here’s how:

1.  From 2Unstoppable.org, click the Member Log In button from the top right of your screen.
2.  Log In with your username and password.
3.  Click on the My Profile button at the top of screen.
4. You will see purple buttons on the right side of the screen.
5.  Select the Edit My Profile button to change or add to your profile. Save Profile when you are done.
6.  Select the Upload A Photo button to add a picture or change your picture.

All of the information that you enter for your profile is view-able to other members except for birth date and zip code.  Members will see your calculated age and distance in miles from your location.  However, remember that only other 2Unstoppable members will see your member profile.  Through focus groups and other analysis that has been conducted, this information was determined to be important for women in choosing an exercise partner; therefore, it is important that the information be displayed on your profile and available for review by other members.

Note:  Any questions regarding treatment are used simply to ensure that the women on the site have had cancer (since this is an important feature of 2Unstoppable, we need to ensure there are no “intruders” on the site).

When you Log In you will be presented with a display of all profiles in the system.  You can search for a buddy by selecting individual profiles or limit your display by using the age and zip code filters.  You decide whom you want to get to know better.

When you Login you will be presented with a display of ALL members who have joined 2Unstoppable.  You can choose to browse through the profiles by selecting on the username or picture of the woman whose profile you are interested in seeing in greater detail.  You can also filter the number of profiles that you view by age and zip code.  When you find someone whom you would like to get to know better, select her profile and use the purple message button to the right of her username to send a private message through the system.  The member you messaged will get an email letting her know that someone from 2Unstoppable has messaged her.  You can continue to message each other through the system and decide together how to get started. 

We are working hard to promote 2Unstoppable to as many women as possible, in order to build capacity on the site so that you can find your ideal fitness buddy. The more women that sign up, the more choices there will be. If you cannot find someone now, we encourage you to try to broaden your search criteria.  If you cannot find anyone that lives nearby, you can become “virtual buddies” and you may still benefit from support and encouragement over the phone, through emails, and/or by text. This option can still help to keep you accountable to your exercise plans and can still provide encouragement and support.

While the primary purpose is to encourage and support physical fitness through a buddy, 2Unstoppable also provides secondary support through the fitness resources on our website as well as community events held periodically to bring together and grow the 2Unstoppable membership and community.

2Unstoppable’s online services include both the matching program as well as access to relevant fitness resources.  These resources include links to find personal trainers and other fitness providers trained or experienced in oncology fitness; specialized fitness videos; relevant articles, websites, and tips on exercise for cancer patients and survivors. 

If you do not know how to begin or what exercises to do, you can always start by taking a walk together! Find a partner, meet somewhere convenient for both of you, and start walking. You can increase the intensity of the exercise by walking faster between lamp posts or other landmarks in the neighborhood. Walking is one of the best exercises for women with cancer, and provides a secondary benefit of an excellent mode for talking, sharing stories, and providing social and emotional support to one another.

We believe in autonomy and the collaboration and cooperation of fitness partners to find what works best for them. As such, there will not be a single designated or supervised place to meet, nor will there be only one type of exercise supported.  We will hold periodic events to bring together and grow the 2Unstoppable membership and to build our fitness community. We encourage you to go wherever you normally enjoy going, whether it be a nearby trail, a local community center, a gym, yoga studio, or local pool, whether you prefer to take a walk through your neighborhood, or meet to walk indoors at the local mall. We would like you to be able to meet with your exercise partner at any location you mutually decide upon, and to do any type of physical activity that suits your lifestyle.

At this time, the pilot area for fitness partner matching through 2Unstoppable is in the Washington DC area, however the program is entirely scaleable nationwide. In addition, a similar program through the ActiveMatch research project has been underway for several years in Toronto, Canada, and 2Unstoppable stands on the shoulders of their research and their experiences. Even within the Washington DC area, fitness partners can match up locally and in person with someone close to or in their own zip code, or they can also choose to match up with a fitness partner based on other selection criteria and become “virtual fitness buddies” through texting, telephone, email and online messaging. The decision regarding how to exercise “together” and how to encourage and support one another will be determined by the participants.

Once we have fully launched 2Unstoppable fitness partner matching in the DC area, the intention is to evaluate the effectiveness of in-person versus virtual buddies and recommend one or both approaches to 2Unstoppable members.

In addition, as we look to scale beyond the immediate metropolitan area, we will try to populate the site with members from a variety of geographic locations, expanding the scope of 2Unstoppable’s effectiveness and growing the support network nationwide. 

2Unstoppable is, first and foremost, an online service provided free of charge for women who have had a cancer diagnosis.  Whether you are newly diagnosed, in treatment, or a recent or long term survivor, 2Unstoppable is for you.  We are committed to providing this service without charging participants a fee in order to minimize barriers to participation. As a standalone service, 2Unstoppable has the goal to help women find an ideal exercise partner to join and encourage the adoption of a healthy, physically active lifestyle and to provide much needed support in this area.

In addition, 2Unstoppable is proud to partner with Dr. Catherine Sabiston of the University of Toronto and Dr. Angela Fong of Queens University in the ActiveMatch research project. From time to time, 2Unstoppable members may be contacted to complete survey questionnaires for research purposes in order to determine the effectiveness of the program and to find ways to improve its efficacy. Participation in the research study and responding to the questionnaires will be anonymous and entirely optional for all 2Unstoppable participants, but the goal of the research is to determine the effectiveness of fitness partners for maintaining physical activity and to eventually help incorporate exercise into every patient’s treatment plan.

2Unstoppable’s software program has multiple layers for safety and security (e.g. screening questions to detect fraudulent profiles). 2Unstoppable is housed on a secure web space that requires a registration process and approval by the 2Unstoppable System Administration team, to ensure that personal information will not be “seen” or visible by common people searching the web or by any non-members. Safeguards are in place to protect all confidential information in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations to prevent any unauthorized use or disclosure of the data. Under no circumstance will any communications or profiles contain identifying information linking to the user. As a 2Unstoppable member, you will create a unique user name by which you will be identified in your profile, and you and other members can message one another through the system (rather than by personal email). Your information will be kept confidential and it will be up to you to determine whether to share personal contact information with potential fitness partners.  Please see the 2Unstoppable Software Terms and Conditions for additional information.

2Unstoppable is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization which raises the funds required for program operations through private means and grants.  The day-to-day costs of running the online matching service are low, and that is why it can be such a cost-effective approach. Our commitment to running 2Unstoppable is long term, and, with continued fundraising, we see no financial barriers to sustaining this service over time.

Please report any issues immediately to info@2unstoppable.org and we will take the appropriate steps to contact and remove the user from the system. You can also go to somebody’s profile and click “Report Offensive Profile,” and we will receive this notification immediately.

Great! If you want to put together an exercise group, we encourage that, too. You can message as many women as you want through the system and when you are ready you can exchange emails and other contact information and form your group.  In the future we plan on having the ability to group message members.

If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact info@2unstoppable.org   We would love to hear from you!