"They didn't just start a nonprofit.
They answered what they survived."
Jerald and April Smith are the co-founders of The Survivor’s Nest, a metro Atlanta-based nonprofit created to support women and families navigating the emotional, physical, and financial realities of cancer.
The organization was born from their own lived experience. At just 34 years old, April was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer a life-changing moment that deeply impacted not only her health, but every aspect of their family’s life. During treatment, April and Jerald quickly realized that healing required far more than medical care alone. Beyond hospital visits and treatment plans were the unseen struggles many women face: food insecurity, emotional exhaustion, caregiver burnout, isolation, financial hardship, and the overwhelming challenge of simply trying to maintain daily life while fighting for survival.
Driven by compassion
What began as acts of compassion showing up for other patients at hospital visits, providing meals, offering encouragement, helping with household needs, and creating safe spaces for support eventually grew into The Survivor’s Nest.
Together, April and Jerald have built an organization rooted in dignity, community, and whole-person wellness. Their work focuses on ensuring that women impacted by cancer and the caregivers who support them have access to practical resources, restorative wellness experiences, movement programs, nutrition support, and compassionate community care throughout treatment and survivorship.
April leads the organization with the heart of a survivor and advocate, using her personal journey to inspire and uplift women facing some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. Jerald, a two-time stroke survivor and former caregiver during April’s cancer journey, brings deep empathy and a servant’s heart to the organization’s mission, helping families feel seen, supported, and never alone.
At the core of their work is a simple belief: healing happens best in community, and no woman should have to navigate cancer without support, dignity, and hope.