Thursday 21 January 2010

#kickcancer.... what's it all about?

Most people will have noticed by now, some no doubt with a touch of annoyance, that #kickcancer is being added to a lot of tweets.... so what's it all about?

The Kick Cancer campaign was started on Twitter by @bubblybex.  The @kickcancer profile, the Kick Cancer facebook fan page and the #kickcancer tag are just the start of a much bigger fundraising idea for the future, so be sure to follow @kickcancer for updates.

To quote a well known statistic, 1 in 3 of us will be affected by cancer at some time in our life.... this means there are hundreds of thousands of people on Twitter and Facebook and other social networking sites who either have been affected or are currently fighting this awful disease.

As a fundraiser for Cancer Research UK, my sole reason for joining twitter in the first place, was to raise awareness of Cancer and the fundraising going on to support vital research.  Since joining I have come across many people doing amazing things to raise money for cancer charities, as well as many inspirational people fighting the disease themselves.  It never ceases to amaze me just how many people have been affected in some way, be it having cancer themselves or having a loved one currently fighting, or as in my case having lost someone to cancer...

The aim of the #kickcancer hashtag (and the Kick Cancer facebook page) is to build an online community where it's ok to talk about cancer and share your stories, to talk about fundraising and hope for the future. 

The only way to get the message out there that this #kickcancer tag exists is to use it - a lot!  People will see it and hopefully want to find out more and connect with others with similar experiences.  Although there are a few using the tag often (perhaps too often!) at the moment, there will come a day when it's common twitter knowledge that it's out there, and the hope is that thousands of people will use it to tag fundraising tweets, when tweeting about their cancer treatment, or when remembering someone they've lost....

so please help to spread the word - add a #kickcancer to a tweet for someone you care about!

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