KUCHING, Aug 19 — What began as a simple social experiment at the recently concluded Kuching Food Festival turned into an unexpected display of compassion as strangers took a moment to whisper their wishes of hope for children battling cancer.
The Sarawak Children’s Cancer Society (SCCS) had placed Joseph, a large teddy bear with a microphone in its ear, at the festival and invited visitors to whisper a wish into its ear.
Among them were two girls who whispered: “Strengthen your spirit to fight cancer”, while another man said: “I know it isn’t easy for you. I also know that you haven’t given up. Don’t give up. Keep going. I believe you can do it. You definitely can.”
SCCS Fundraising and Awareness manager Genevieve Tan said her team did not expect the public response to be so overwhelming.
“A few months ago, we were donated three large bears and then we decided at that moment to use Joseph for one of our advertisements for our monthly donation campaign. This was an idea from one of our videographers, Joyce Khoo.
“She suggested that we use the bear for that particular video to add interest. She also encouraged us to use Joseph for other storytelling purposes, and we use it at the food festival for the public to whisper a wish for a child with cancer.
“We just tried it out without any expectation, actually,” she told The Borneo Post.
Tan said the choice of a teddy bear was deliberate, as bears are strongly associated with children and can make it easier for people to express their thoughts.
“We chose the Kuching Food Festival as the first location for this campaign. We chose that place because it’s a place where everybody from all walks of life, backgrounds, ages and races come together.”
“You can really see their sincerity in hoping for the best for children with cancer. I think that is what made the video quite impactful and emotionally touching, because it was just different people, but all with the same intention to wish the children well.
“For a lot of people, it’s not just about children with cancer. When they see it, you can see the good in humanity in this video,” she explained.
While most of the response was positive, one participant expressed the view that cancer could not be cured. Rather than seeing the comment as negative, Tan said SCCS viewed it as a reminder of the importance of raising awareness about childhood cancer.
“It’s not exactly negative. It just shows that this is her perspective,” she said, adding that the response reinforced one of SCCS’s key missions — to educate the public about childhood cancer.
With Childhood Cancer Awareness Month approaching in September, SCCS plans to feature Joseph in a series of social media posts aimed at spreading greater awareness about childhood cancer.
She highlighted children with high-risk stage four neuroblastoma who have received immunotherapy supported by SCCS, who would otherwise have a slim chance of survival without access to the treatment.
“SCCS aims to significantly improve survival rates by ensuring access to the best available treatments, including highly specialised options. There is always hope. It is just that access to care needs to be given,” she said.
As part of the awareness month, SCCS will hold a Childhood Cancer Awareness Walk on Sept 5 at Kuching Waterfront here, in collaboration with the Kuching North City Commission (DBKU) and its sponsors.
“The walk would not be a race or competition but an opportunity for members of the public to come together. They can donate RM50 to get an event t-shirt and special enamel pin for the event.
“We would also like to work together as a community to raise awareness of childhood cancer. Other than the walk, we will be doing a number of social media posts to let the public know about the facts and myths of cancer.”
Throughout September, SCCS will also explore partnerships with retail businesses to raise funds through partial proceeds from sales.
“We are in the process of trying to reach out to retail partners to raise funds for fundraising. Basically it’s like the proceeds of sales for that month can go to supporting our services for children with cancer.
“So those are the few main things that we will be focussing on,” she shared, hoping to conduct as many activities as possible during the awareness month to reach different groups of people.
For her, supporting children with cancer does not always require a large financial contribution.
“Everybody can do their part to support someone in need. It doesn’t have to be a huge monetary sum. It’s just talking about it and raising awareness and removing the stigma of childhood cancer,” she said.
She said sharing accurate information and helping to remove the stigma surrounding the disease could make a difference to affected families.
“One of the things that our families experience is because there is so little known about childhood cancer. They think that because adult cancer is mostly viewed as being caused by lifestyle issues, one of the things that our families experience is receiving hurtful comments about the cause of the cancer in their child.
“However, for childhood cancer, there is no underlying cause. It’s not about the food you eat or where you live or your environment. It just happens. There is no one specific cause. Very rarely is it genetic,” she said.
Tan said the lack of public understanding could sometimes lead to hurtful comments or backlash towards families after their children are diagnosed with cancer.
“So if the knowledge about childhood cancer is raised to the public, then this kind of backlash to our families who are already going through something very difficult, can be reduced,” she said.
That was what Joseph’s whispered wishes captured best: that beneath differences in age, race, language, and background, there remains a shared willingness to hope for someone in need.
The comments section also saw several touching messages from viewers. One user, joycexiaowei86, shared her hope that her best friend would return without cancer, saying she missed her and that the simple video had brought her to tears.
Another user, mikakuan, summed up the sentiment behind the video, writing that while medicine heals the body, “love, hope and kind words heal the spirit.” — The Borneo Post
