Everyday, 17 people die every minute due to cancer, says the World Health Organization statistics. Today, Cancer has become a chronic ailment taking millions of lives. Over the years science and innovation has reduced the cancer mortality making it possible to live with cancers.
But what ails in the society is the huge burden of cancer – be it the Cancer Survivors or the Cancer Caregivers looking after cancer patients – the long lasting effect of cancer is many. So, this year different brands and startups came up with unique ventures to support these people.
February 4 is celebrated as World Cancer Day to support and drive awareness regarding cancer and prevent this medical catastrophe through early diagnosis and treatment.
This year’s World Cancer Day theme was ‘I Am and I Will’ the final stage of ‘I Can, We Can’. 3 year solidarity drive launched in 2019 to make people aware of the cancer risk factors and encourage them to work for it. The aim of this was to make us aware that everyone can reduce the cancer burden.
Popular health and Pharma brands like Roche, Medlife are already doing #ICanWeCan campaigns to support cancer patients and make people aware of it but now and then other popular brands drive the change.
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Brands Driving Cancer Care Campaigns
Over the years India has seen a great deal of cancer support work by different brands, restaurants, NGOs and startups. This year too marked a range of cancer support work which seeked to uplift cancer survivors and caregivers.
1. Hair Donation Drive
Of this, the Mumbai headquartered Pan Indian salon chain Enrich Salons deserves special mention as it launched a month long hair donation drive to make wigs for cancer survivors.
Enrich collaborated with Cope With Cancer for this hair donation drive which asked consumers to donate hair all through the month and enjoy INR 10,000 reward points. The aim of this campaign was to rebuild the confidence of the cancer survivors by giving them new wigs made of donated hair.
2.25 million people in India are living with cancer while 2021 saw 1,157,294 new cancer patients, says the National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR) statistics.
This shows the extent of the hair loss problem of cancer patients and survivors. Enrich seeked to address this by bringing a positive change in the cancer survivors’ life, said the founder of Enrich, Vikram Bhatt.
The month-long drive received massive support from celebrities and influencers on social media.
2. Supporting Cancer Caregivers
Cancer isn’t an easy disease, it requires diligent screening to detect the ailment and then years of diagnosis and treatment which requires tremendous amounts of care most often done by dedicated Cancer Caregivers.
Bharti AXA General Insurance recognized the daily hardships of Cancer Caregivers as they launched a heartfelt campaign #EkNayaNazariya telling their stories.
To mark this they did a detailed survey of the cancer caregivers and launched the results of the survey to enlighten the masses. Through this survey they found that cancer caregivers find inspiration by talking to their friends and families while struggling with this hard life
- About 54% of them said that they find it hard to stay positive and always look for inspiration.
- Most of them are above 35 years of age.
- While female caregivers (42%) felt exhausted, male caregivers (19%) felt underappreciated.
- 52% Caregivers from tier 1 cities looked for strength in religion and spiritual activities while the number was 29% and 32% in tier 2 and tier 3 cities respectively.
- While men stay away from therapy, women were more willing to go to therapy
The goal of this campaign was to educate people of cancer caregivers’ mental health and struggles which is crucial for eradicating cancer and cancer patients’ survival, said Sanjeev Srinavasan, MD and CEO of Bharti AXA General Insurance.
The brand launched a poignant poem written and narrated by Priya Malik who herself is a caregiver. The goal here was to interact with as many people as possible over social media with the ‘Naya Nazariya’ Poem and #IssJungMeinHumSaathHain statement.
3. Normalising Cancer Care
Standard cancer care procedure needs a long process of diagnosis and treatment which is quite hard for cancer patients and caregivers. This is why cancer care portal Onco.com launched #FightCancerWithOnco campaign last year.
The campaign saw the Dil Bechara actress Sanjana Sanghi told people to fight cancer and go through regular screening tests to save themselves from breast cancers.
Cancer patients and caregivers go through a tedious process for this detection and diagnosis and there is a need to normalise this.
So, this World Cancer Day it all began with small but significant initiatives. Because We Can and We Will conquer this malice.
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