Heather Greenaway talks to artist Jen who helped sibling through terminal cancer about charity drive
WHEN Jen Docherty’s beloved older brother was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer she started making naughty greetings cards in a bid to cheer him up.
The tongue in cheek cards which stuck two fingers up to cancer helped Han laugh through the most difficult days of his illness until his death in November 2020, aged just 42.
After he passed away artist Jen decided to recreate the cards in his memory and give the profits from the sales to Cancer Support Scotland – the charity that helped her throughout his cancer battle.
The cards, which feature cheeky messages like “Well this sucks”, “Colon cancer is an a ***** e” and “We are in this s***storm together”, have proved a massive hit with people across the globe.
Calligrapher Jen, 41, who lives in Glasgow, said: “When my brother Han was diagnosed with metastatic bowel cancer in January 2020, all the booklets we were given at the beginning spoke of a ‘cancer journey’ and we hated that, it’s more like a war – a sustained attack on body, mind and soul and every war needs a protest which is how the cards came about. Sometimes ‘get well soon’ or ‘thinking of you’ doesn’t cut it, and I couldn’t find anything that suited – so I made my own.
“We both have a dark sense of humour so these cards were a way of sticking two fingers up at his cancer and showing how much I loved and supported him. It acted as an emotional release too. I needed some way to vent my frustrations and rage at how unfair this was – but mainly, I wanted to make him laugh.”
Jen, who grew up near Aviemore in the Highlands, added: “He was having a terrible time – each appointment was more bad news. We weren’t allowed in with him to appointments because of Covid, he couldn’t go to support groups or Maggies or MacMillan – it was lonely.
“I didn’t want him to be lonely, or sick, or sad – and the only thing I could do was visit, take him to chemo and make cards to make him laugh.
“Towards the end of his life we brought him home and I stuck up all the cards in the living room to