Fight Back

My Father died three years ago today on what would have been his birthday. He had cancer. Lymphoma.

This week, my agency launched a campaign (the creation of which I had a small part) for the Canadian Cancer Society. You can see it here.

If you've got the heart for it, I'd suggest you scroll down to the right of the site and watch the TV spot called Fight. It's 2 minutes and 40 seconds long, so it's not going to get a lot of play on air, but we're hoping it'll make the rounds virally.

The important thing to note is that no one in that Fight spot is an actor.

Every single person who appears in any one of these spots is an ordinary Canadian whose life has been touched by cancer. With 2 of 5 Canadians developing some form of cancer in their lifetime, they aren't hard to find.

We put out the call and people came. Some of them came straight from their chemo appointments. Others had to be helped into the audition rooms. There were mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. There were patients and physicians, researchers and kids barely out of high school.

Even I auditioned for that spot. It was one of the few times I've ever told the story of the day my Dad died. When I was done, I went back to my car and cried like a baby.

The two burly creative guys who worked on this spot are crazy talented. They're more accustomed to selling credit cards and motor cars, then creating a movement against cancer. Yet both of them have said their lives are permanently changed by the experience of staring cancer straight in the eye.

I know I can say the same.