Regina Ellis, JoyRx: Harnessing Joy

Speaking at PSFK CONFERENCE SAN FRANCISCO, Regina Ellis of JoyRx spoke about how her life experiences have brought her closer to understanding the importance of getting, giving, and sharing joy. At a young age, her daughter Alexandra was diagnosed with cancer, and succumbed to the disease after battling with it for 731 days. One profound thing that Ellis learned from her daughter throughout this experience was how she lived every day of her short but  full life in the pursuit of joy, and how important this was to her battle with cancer.

At that time, there was no particular focus on the power of comfort and joy in the treatment of cancer, so Ellis began to engineer programs that would reach out and comfort children suffering from the disease, and improve their overall quality of life. At the Children’s Cancer Association, the focus is on creating free and sustainable programs for children that spread this sharing and joy for the sake of healing. Their programs have attracted many large brands as partners and participants such as Nike, Converse, Atlantic Records, and the NBA. From this came the project My MusicRx, on online resources which connects children to the healing power of music.

Overall, JoyRx is founded on the idea that the world is not a place of indifference, but rather that joy is everywhere. When it is cultivated, this joy can have a dramatic positive effect on the lives of everyone it touches.