February 4, 2022 is World Cancer Day.
What is World Cancer Day? It’s basically a globally recognized day to raise awareness about Cancer. Each year there is a theme, and this year it’s “Close the Care Gap”. From the WCD website:
“We live in a time of awe-inspiring advancements in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment, many of us who seek cancer care hit barriers at every turn. Income, education, geographical location and discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability and lifestyle are just a few of the factors that can negatively affect care. This year’s World Cancer Day’s theme, “Close the Care Gap”, is all about raising awareness of this equity gap that affects almost everyone, in high as well as low- and middle-income countries, and is costing lives.”
So how is Zippaport helping to Close the Care Gap?
When we first started Zippaport, a few people commented that we could run a profitable business by selling our shirts. And we probably could, but that was never our idea. We have no interest in making money off childhood cancer families. Economic status should not dictate whether a child can have a more comfortable treatment experience. We want every child who has a port to have access to our shirts, and not worry about paying for them. That being said, we have to place limits, to ensure that we can reach as many kids as possible. When we started out, we were only able to give one shirt per child. We’ve had enough success with our donations and volunteers that we’re now offering 2 free shirts.
We know that kids grow, and for kids in treatment that lasts 2-3 years (ie Leukemia), that could mean a few shirt sizes. We also live in a climate where both short and long sleeves are necessary. So, ideally we’d offer 4 free shirts to every family. We’ll get there eventually. For now, if a family would like more than 2 shirts, we ask for a $15 donation per shirt to cover the costs.
We also want to ensure that all childhood families can find out about our shirts – not only those who are active on social media or extra savvy at researching what’s available to them. This is why we feel that distributing our shirts directly at hospitals is so important. By handing a shirt to an in-patient child or at a clinic visit without them even asking, we know that regardless of whether English is their first language or what shows up on their Instagram For You page, that they can get one of our shirts.
This World Cancer Day, we want to spread the word about our shirts, so that we can get our shirts to as many kids as possible and Close the Care Gap. On February 4th, Look for Julie and Sadie on the Global Toronto Morning News show, and also on the Global Kingston Morning News show…and if you miss us, we’ll post the links on our social media sites and website 😉