Skip to Accessibility Menu Skip to Login Skip to Content Skip to Footer
Woman sitting on a train with a "cancer on board" pin on her shirt

Cancer On Board Is 2

Katie R's avatar image

By Katie R

2 min read

My little cancer charity, Cancer On Board, is now 2. Well, it’s been 2 years since we got official charitable status and I can’t really believe it!  It’s amazing and terrifying how fast the last 2 years have gone by. I also can’t believe that I’ve known the person whose idea it was for around 3 or even 4 years now. It’s completely bonkers! I also can’t imagine not knowing him and feel like I’ve known him forever.

Some exciting developments

Some exciting things have happened recently, and I feel so proud of what we have achieved.  There are only 3 of us doing the charity alongside life and work, for no money, and whilst sometimes I get frustrated at how little we have done, I then see positive comments on social media about how the travel badge has been so helpful, or find out that we have sent out around 6,000 badges to people and it blows me away.

By providing your email address, you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

The founder, James, and myself had a meeting with a very senior person of a huge cancer charity in the UK a few weeks ago and they want 10,000 of our badges to send out to clinics and to list on their site for medical professionals so GPs, nurses and consultants will know about our badge!! Our little badge that came about as a bit of a joke is now a really serious thing.

A travel badge for when fatigue and pain set in

Person holding a Cancer On Board badge

Cancer On Board badge

It might seem a bit gimmicky as it is a badge that says "Cancer On Board," as it was ripped off from the "Baby On Board" badge, but it’s incredible. The impact it has on the person wearing it while going through treatment is HUGE. The fact that they get offered a seat on the tube or train or are allowed to skip the queue because they can’t stand up, or don’t feel guilty for not standing up to let someone elderly or pregnant sit down. Well, there aren’t really words to describe it.

Gaining traction around the globe

We have also been asked to post them out to the States and other countries by people finding us on social media!  So, I suppose it’s time to say watch out world!  We are slowly but surely becoming known and we know we are wanted (and sadly needed).  But you know what? Having cancer, a chronic cancer that is just simply ongoing and never-ending has often been, well, pretty sh*t really. And there are many times when I feel like it’s not fair and I’m so angry that it happened to me. But then I meet people like James and Cancer On Board is born, and then it all makes a little bit of sense. Being able to help people in the way that we have just by putting a badge in the post is pretty incredible.

Looking ahead for our charity

So I hope that in the next 2 years we are able to achieve even more than we have done so far.  To be able to provide people with more than a badge is our goal, and judging by what we have done so far, it will hopefully happen sooner than we think.

This article represents the opinions, thoughts, and experiences of the author; none of this content has been paid for by any advertiser. The Blood-Cancer.com team does not recommend or endorse any products or treatments discussed herein. Learn more about how we maintain editorial integrity here.

Join the conversation

Please read our rules before commenting.