The Cancer That Stuck Me

Every day in Israel, ten young adults ages 18-40 find out they are have cancer. Still, the country’s support system does not recognize this age category as a population with special needs. Quite the opposite in fact. For many of these young adults who are just starting out in life - starting a family, buying an apartment, beginning their careers; getting cancer means getting stuck. Why? Because young cancer patients (and even recovering young cancer patients) can't get a mortgage, women cancer patients are not told to freeze their eggs (in spite of what you can imagine cancer treatments may do to their ability to conceive & have a baby) and 60% of them are not hired back to work. For them, getting cancer means getting stuck. The “Stop Cancer” association was created to change that and provide a network of support for young adults with cancer. Therefore, in honour of the first ‘Young Adult Cancer Awareness Week’, we launched #The_Cancer_That_Stuck_Me. The idea behind the campaign was to emphasize that while a ‘regular’ 29-year-old, buying his first apartment, life is on track to move forward, the life of another person that same age, who just was diagnosed with cancer, suddenly gets stuck. While he is asked to deal with the disease, once recovered buying an apartment will be an impossible dream as he will not be eligible for any funding or mortgage. The campaign carried which was carried out on every media platform available, attempts to illustrate our cancer patients getting stuck and began with organic Instagram stories which hit a nerve and spread everywhere as hundreds of celebrities joined our cause and shared their stories. Live prime television broadcasts froze, live radio broadcasts got stuck as did TV Promos, Movie trailers and YouTube pre-rolls. Even Israeli President Mr. Reuven Rivlin voiced his position in support of our goal. Experiential advertisement created by Saatchi & Saatchi, Israel for StopCancer Association, within the category: Public Interest, NGO.