How was Fuck Cancer?
 

"Fuck!" You wouldn't expect such a sharp expression from a project that wants to help people, would you? "Fuck!" That word resonates more on battlefields, in places cursed with problems, in situations with no easy way out. "Fuck!" And that's why the vulgarity fits the fight against cancer. "Fuck, Cancer?" Fuck, I have cancer? More like "Fuck Cancer!" Fuck cancer!

There are some situations in which politeness pays off like a paintball gun loaded with gummy bears when a horde of bloodthirsty marauders is coming at you. There are situations where you need to be loaded with blades.

And there are times when you can't spare the strong language.

This is that situation. Because few battles in human life are as taxing on the mind and body as a battle with cancer. And few battles require such commitment: mentally and physically. You need strength. Understanding. Determination. And will. What else can describe that date with an unexpected blow of fate better than the word FUCK?

We were the first organization in the Czech Republic to write this powerful term right into our name. We are "Fuck Cancer"! Hello, we are pleased to meet you. Allow us to introduce ourselves.

We're really not a bunch of dirty people. We didn't even make that phrase up. The history of the term says that "fuck cancer" became a hashtag among young patients in the United States before anyone on Twitter even coined the hashtag; hell, even before anyone invented Twitter. And it caught on so much that in 2005, a non-profit organization with the same name was founded in California: the Fuck Cancer Foundation.

The organization was founded by Brandon McGuiness, a snowboarder and surfer who at the time was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphoid tissue. Twenty-six years after the foundation was established, Brandon succumbed to the disease. Fuck! But the foundation didn't let that put it down; instead, it went big. Fuck Cancer!

A few years later, someone finally invented Twitter, someone else finally invented the Twitter hashtag, and the phrase Fuck Cancer in the form of #fuckcancer took on a whole new life, scatter, and panache. By that time, many projects and organizations were already going under the Fuck Cancer banner in the US; the basic one is now run by Brandon's cousin Mgus and Eric Frega, who also got caught up in cancer. With the hashtag #fuckcancer, which appeared on Twitter in 2009, however, the phrase has been humanised globally; on Instagram today you'll find some 5 million results under it, and Google will spit out a billion. Cancer? Fuck Cancer!
It's far from just an expression of anger and frustration with the disease. Equally and much more powerfully, it is an expression of defiance and combative determination. What does a man who has been screwed over by his own body in the form of cancer need? Hope. Support. Understanding. Empathy. Love. Strength. And productive aggression.

He needs friends to give him that strength. He needs a support system that doesn't back down from anything. He needs courage. The courage to look cancer in the eye and say, "Fuck you," with simple human fearlessness.

We like that. We decided to team up with the global brand Fuck Cancer because we've had enough of innocent words, of painting things dark purple on a rainbow of pale blue; we've had our fill of dry, unspeakable medical terms. Cancer is a brutal assault on life. We're here to answer it just as brutally. And we're gonna push it to its limits. There's a campaign we've made our own, our ideas, our energy, our people. Join us and create more campaigns with us. 

But we don't stop at words. Words are just the beginning. It's a command. It's a call to action. Say "Fuck Cancer". That's not a command to retreat. It's a call to arms. It's the spoken words that end the dialogue with an insidious disease - and begin the action.

And believe us, we're full of action. Look forward to it.

And don't you get too excited, cancer. You're doomed.

FUCK CANCER