Cancer remains one of the world’s biggest killers. Accounting for nearly 1 in 6 deaths worldwide. But while many cancers can now be cured, the cost of treatment can be astronomical. Especially when it comes to rare cancers. Typically, a huge amount of funds is needed in a very short time (for example, 250,000 Euros in one month) which is too expensive for most patients in Eastern Europe. We looked to see if there was a way to effectively and repeatably collect such vast amounts of money.

At the same time, with the development of blockchain technology, NFTs have seen a huge surge in popularity. In 2022, still nearly $41billion of crypto was spent on NFT marketplaces. However, most of these NFTs serve little purpose beyond proving the owner possesses something rare. Could rare NFTs be used to fund treatment for rare cancers?

"Buy My Cancer" is an innovative funding model created to help cover the costly treatment of rare cancers. Turning real patients’ living cancer cells into beautiful and powerful pieces of art, which are then auctioned as NFTs. All funds raised go to life-saving treatment for these patients, and further research into rare cancer treatments.

The project was designed to create equal opportunities within the possibility of cancer treatment as some cancers, are very expensive to treat. "Buy My Cancer" created a means to fight cancer using the cancer itself.

To generate the funds, we targeted our message directly to very specific audiences: serious art collectors and tech-savvy disposable income earners looking to invest in NFTs with an actual purpose.

The brand behind the project is an oncology foundation, which has been mobilizing the society for help and solidarity with patients for 12 years.

A real patient’s living cancer cells are photographed using a confocal microscope – creating high resolution three-dimensional images. These beautiful and powerful images are then transformed into pieces of art, minted into NFT collections, put up for auction, and advertised to collectors through social media and PR.

Once this collection has been sold, and the proceeds have gone on to fund the patient’s life-saving cancer treatment, the process begins again with a new patient. And so on and so on, continually saving lives with each new and unique NFT collection.

These NFT collections are put up for auction at the largest NFT galleries (OpenSea, VAST) and advertised through social media, events and PR.

All the project communication is based on the use of images of living cancer cells from real patients who are currently fighting these cancers.

The first cancer images came from Jacob – who suffers from a rare and resistant form of aggressive B-cell lymphoma. Just weeks after Buy My Cancer launched, first NFT collection sold out, and Jacob successfully collected 102% of the amount that was needed to start CAR-T treatment (EUR 250 000). Effectively saving his life.

Forbes wrote that "Buy My Cancer" brings purpose to the NFT format. Before the project existed, there were also no laws covering fundraising using NFTs. Our lawyers created a proposition that was submitted and approved by the Polish Ministry of Finance. We shared this legal proposition on GitHub to help facilitate the creation of the future NFT and crypto fundraising projects.

Project was discussed by members of the EU Parliament and top Oncologists at the 8th International Oncology Forum in Brussels, organized by The Economist. It was named a “new hope” for funding cancer treatment globally.