When our CEO received his cancer diagnosis last year and publicly shared the news, he received an outpouring of personal stories and support. He learned firsthand that, in addition to being scared for their health, cancer patients were too often scared for their jobs, and felt the need to hide their illness. This was the impetus of the Working with Cancer program.
Our objective was to remove the stigma of cancer at work and stand with every employee dealing with the disease by not only raising awareness, but by creating real change. We started by pledging concrete actions to make our own employees feel safe and protected, including securing jobs, salary levels and benefits for a year, providing career support to patients and caregivers, and training a community of peer volunteers to provide support.
Then we challenged the global business world to do the same. To erase the stigma of cancer at work, we didn’t need just one partner, we needed hundreds. In a true first, we rallied all major media vendors to come together and make meaningful pro bono donations, providing unprecedented scale behind a challenge for companies to commit to changing policies. Securing $100M in donated, high-impact media, we illuminated the issue with emotive messaging creatively segmented and sequenced. In the first six months, we have motivated 800 companies to make the pledge.
