Don't be a cancer chancer: How a colloquial message of hope empowered a population to save their own lives

Every year 500 people in Greater Manchester could be saved from cancer death if their symptoms were presented earlier. This paper shows how a small budget social marketing campaign saved lives in Greater Manchester with a positive message about cancer. The creative strategy was to create hope instead of fear and alter the way that this population reacted to the early signs of breast, lung and bowel cancer. With four impactful yet empathetic visuals in newspapers, bus tickets, pharmacy bags, on public toilet rolls and drink coasters the campaign was able to reach and engage with a specific, socially disadvantaged audience. It achieved prompted awareness of over 50 per cent, a 69 per cent increase in awareness of the symptoms of cancer, and 26 more cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2008