This is a story of a charity asking for no sympathy. Asking employers to show no pity, communication to raise no money and cancer to be seen as no enemy.

The story of 400 employees diagnosed every day in France. 400 good reasons for our client Cancer@Work to urge companies to adapt their mentalities and working environment. Especially given this paradox: work is as essential for patients (confidence, motivation, salary, social connections…) as cancer is problematic for companies (workload, tensions, absenteeism...).

They act to make employees keep their, as they are 3 times more likely to lose it.

They asked us to get former patients back to work, as they are 70% to be still seeking 2 years after diagnosis.

We understood the language of cancer (“pernicious”, “evil”, “scourge”, “cancer of society” …) adds to the collective psyche of people losing weight, hair, strength and dignity to make it the symbol par excellence of weakening.

So permanently that even for those who recover, we feel sorry. And employer’s pity for a candidate hardly leads to a job.

We established our main goal was to shift from compassion to consideration

and our main challenge to market the patients, not the disease.

We searched for a valuable side of cancer. It didn’t feel right, but it paid off.

We found a study: for 79% of patients, cancer positively impacted their skills.

We found another study: for 92% of executives, soft skills are as important as technical skills.

There was a match.

So, we kept on digging.

We ranked the new strengths according to patients: sense of perspective and priority, empathy, collaboration, determination.

We found the most in-demand skills according to LinkedIn: creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability, time management.

There was a match again.

And an undeniable truth:

Fighting cancer builds the most relevant skills for today’s companies

At that point, we rationally knew they had the skills. But still, they didn’t have the job.

Why?

Simply because they don’t get the interviews.

We realized it all started with the gap on their resume: an empty space raising doubts to recruiters and shame for patients.

So, we filled in the blanks for them. We reframed overcoming cancer as an intensive skills training. A much better start for consideration. And a way greater ground for a conversation.

The road ahead was long, so we took shortcuts. Literal shortcuts for an immediate assimilation into the business culture.

Our strategic thinking drove one creative idea:

dramatizing the skills in the language of business. And two executions.

1. “Fighting Cancer” literally establishes the fight as a skill

Insight: if a skill is not on LinkedIn, it is not a professional skill.

We created the first LinkedIn skill to embody survivors’ experience, with a 90’’ film of patients boosting their pride and value in the most iconic place of business.

2. “The Unstoppable Resume” literally reveals the skills behind the blank.

Insight: software used by 95% of multinationals are programmed to automatically discard candidates with periods of inactivity.

We ensured face-to-face interviews by created a platform to replace the white period with a white-in-white personalized story: still invisible to the human eye but picked by those who know how to look.

The “Fighting Cancer” skill on LinkedIn:

36,000 shares on LinkedIn

Skill pushed by LinkedIn

40M impressions in a month

French Health Minister talking about it on TV

The Unstoppable Resume:

10,000 CV generated in 39 countries over the world after the first week.

600,000 views and 20,000 shares.

80M impressions after 3 weeks.

It increased our client’s awareness and credibility by making its communication a real tool for integration, starting with the integration in the codes and place of business culture.

But above all, it was a very special pride to see the testimony of one of the first candidates who got and won her job interview.

She just said thank you.

But she sent it from her professional email address.

In the US, those who overcome cancer are usually called “survivors” and society tends to admire them. Whereas in France, we just call them “former patients” and society tend to pity them. Here, cancer is still a taboo with a perception of shameful illness that destroys your body and mind.

According to the article of Dr Julia Rowland in The Cancer Journal, “the language of cancer has a considerable impact on the illness perception: the word ‘patient’ is not consistent with the newer view of an informed and active participant in care, which is what `survivor' implies.”

This can be one of the reasons why cancer still is a taboo in France: 55% of French employees think it is hard to talk about cancer at work and 86% of French people say cancer is the disease that frightens them the most.