Giving the finger to cancer
Unconventional fundraiser appeals to the nightclub crowd
Near the end of her fight with ovarian cancer, Jone Weltman endured a torturous biopsy. A probe was shoved through her nose and down into a lung to take a tissue sample, leaving her lying in a Montreal hospital bed gasping for breath.
When a nurse came by with a chipper “How are you doing?” Weltman channelled the rage of her four-year battle with the disease, and snapped back sarcastically: “How am I doing? This is a walk in the park. F*CK CANCER!”
The power behind that statement propelled Jone Weltman’s teenage daughter, Julie Greenbaum, to create an unconventional charity to raise money for cancer research.
It’s far removed from the pink lip gloss and teddy bears that sprout during breast cancer campaigns, or the hopeful daffodils that symbolize the Canadian Cancer Society’s fundraising drives.
The group Julie Greenbaum co-founded in 2010 to honour the mother stolen from her when she was only 19 is called F*ck Cancer. And it’s very appealing to the 20-something nightclub crowd.
F*ck Cancer throws parties in nightclubs, where clubbers wear black T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan written in colours that represent the cancer ribbons, from teal for ovarian cancer to pink for breast and white for lung.
They dance the night away, and raise a collective finger to the disease that has afflicted virtually everyone, directly or indirectly. Ottawa’s second annual F*ck Cancer bash arrives at Mansion nightclub Saturday March 2, with entertainment by DJ duo 4 Korners. About 600 people are expected.
The name of the organization is “a little big vulgar,” agrees Greenbaum. “It’s not something you see every day, that’s why it catches your attention.”
But young people respond to the anger behind the slogan. “For me, the reason I think it’s so powerful is I’ve had the experience of living with a mother who had cancer and eventually passed away,” says Greenbaum, now 22. “And I really think it’s something that everyone who experienced it, I think we all feel that aggression and that hate toward cancer.”
And since people her age love to go to nightclubs, it’s the “perfect link,” she says. “We can go out, have fun and walk away from the night feeling like we’ve done something.
“It’s really cool to be in a club where you have 600 or 700 young adults all wearing this very powerful statement.”
The price is also right for young people who can’t afford expensive galas, golf tournaments or $100 lottery tickets. The T-shirts for the Ottawa event are $25, which buys admission to the club. The money raised goes to the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. Greenbaum founded F*ck Cancer with her father, Hillel, beginning with a private party in a Montreal nightclub in 2010. Since then, the group has staged seven fundraisers at clubs in Montreal, Los Angeles, Toronto, Ottawa and London, Ont., raising about $90,000 for local cancer research organizations. And the idea is catching on. “To be honest, it’s a little overwhelming,” says Greenbaum, who’s studying psychology at McGill University in Montreal but cut back on her course load to devote more time to the organization.
“I’m getting emails every day from young people all over the world, just saying, ‘I saw this amazing event. How can we throw it in Hawaii? How can we throw it in Paris? How can we throw it in South Africa?’ ”
Ottawa resident Lauren Seller, a co-organizer of the Mansion nightclub event, will be there with her two younger sisters, clad in T-shirts with pink letters.
Their mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009. She’s now cancer free, but still suffering from complications of surgery.
“I got involved because I know what I went through, and I know what she went through, and that’s the only thing I was able to relate to,” said Seller, 24.
“The walk for breast cancer is great, to see all these women walking together. But for me, to go out and say f--cancer, that’s how I felt.”
Ottawa’s first nightclub fundraiser last year was inspiring, she said. Most patrons were between 19 and 30. They took photographs of each other with raised fingers, and in front of a backdrop emblazoned with the slogan. “It’s all these kids that don’t mind saying it, they scream it out as loud as they want. No one is holding back.
“Everybody is supporting something that has touched them. It’s a very exciting feeling. Yes, we are having a good time, but this is our way to make a contribution. In addition to having a great time, they know they are doing something good. But it’s still a club, it’s still a party atmosphere, and that’s what kids like to do. So it’s the best of both worlds.”
Seller has been seeking sponsors for the Ottawa event to help pay for the DJs and other costs, but some businesses are reluctant to be associated with the f-word. Still, Telus has made a donation, and several other businesses have promised to contribute.