F You Cancer!

If you have ever searched for volunteer opportunities or have become aware that the Vancouver community has an expanding wealth of socially conscious organizations, each promoting their own individual cause. Ideally you want to engage an organization that represents a cause you believe to be socially significant.  In our diverse community, individual experience and subjective perception often drive our decisions on how we engage; however, there are issues that affect all people, directly or indirectly, regardless of her or his race, gender, or wealth. For me and many of you, this issue is a disease.  This disease is Cancer.

The F Cancer organization is a local Vancouver based institution that is utilizing radical marketing strategies in an attempt to change the social perception surrounding cancer and, therefore, how it is confronted.  It “is a movement to change how cancer is perceived and diagnosed in our society and how cancer survivors and patients perceive themselves. It is time to ditch the stigma and the victim mentality; let’s shift the power from the cancer to the patient” (The F Cancer Team).

Essentially, in addition to altering the social perception of cancer, the F Cancer team’s primary function is to change the means and situational factors by how it is detected.  The foundation of their educational campaign is to inform people that 95% of all cancer is curable if detected during stage 1 of its development.  This fact then acts as a reason for initiating early detection programs, promoting a search for cancer as opposed to its accidental discovery.

In order to achieve this shift, the organization is utilizing different mainstream and alternative mediums to advertise their attention grabbing campaign.  Their aggressive slogan, “Fuck Cancer,” can be seen all around the streets of Vancouver plastered on black and white T-shirts sported by cancer conscious individuals.  Currently, they are expanding their advertising scope to incorporate American youth by broadcasting on university campus programming and acquiring high profile sponsors like Sarah McLachlan, a famous Canadian singer/songwriter.

To learn more about how to volunteer with or how to donate to the F Cancer team, contact Heather McKenzie-Beck at heather@letsfcancer.com or visit letsfuckcancer.com.

By David Swanson