3 February 2014

CAC - A great success story

John Ellison: "The diagnosis is a terminal one so no cure in sight."
Leah Crane, Mina Leslie-Wujastyk and Alex Puccio
The Swedish Junior National Team
Climbers Against Cancer
 and John Ellison won the "Winners" award of Social awareness at ISPO. In just 12 months, CAC has raised 230 000 Euro out of which 40 000 have already been donated to research facilities in Australia, France and Canada.


What is your normal work and how much time do you spend with CAC?

Due to the extremity of my condition I finished work approximately 18 months ago. I was working as a building surveyor prior to the decision to call time. CAC is pretty much a 24/7 job as it is truly global and given the time differences Worldwide. If I am awake at 2am in the morning I can quite often be answering emails etc and during the day it is mainly packing orders etc. CAC is totally a non profit organisation and every penny raised goes towards the fundraising efforts. No one is paid and no money is used for any of the administration. Anyone who helps with the project does so on a voluntary basis (myself included) and quite often at a cost to themselves. 


What was your hope with CAC and what is your future hope?
Following my own diagnosis I realized that many people were almost frightened of talking about cancer never mind discussing it openly. In the first year, prior to CAC I raised approximately £20,000 for cancer research groups in the UK and felt that awareness had as big a part to play in the defeating of cancer as fundraising. This is why awareness and open discussion is still very important to myself and I feel that through CAC we are making such a difference already especially when I talk to many of the young climbers I know worldwide who have opened up so much when discussing the disease. My hope for the future wuld be that CAC continues to grow and continue to leave an impression on people across the spectrum so not only amongst the climbing community but also beyond. We are after all metaphorically speaking ‘all climbers in life’. From a donation point of view it would be nice if eventually we can make contributions in every country raising awareness wherever we go. 


Why did CAC become such a great success?
I think it helped in the first instance that I already knew many well known climbers on an international scale before the campaign started and many of whom were personal friends. Choosing the right garment and making them colorful straight away made people smile especially when the first batch were worn by many of the top competition climbers who had all offered their support once they new the plan for the charity. Making the donations at the big events helped massively as it gave CAC global coverage and so helped bring it to many peoples attention. To start to thank everyone who has played their part or helped in someway to make CAC a success would take forever so I would like to thank everyone as a whole for their support and to say this is your charity and its success so far belongs to everyone. 


How is your personal treatment going nowadays?
Where do I start? It sin’t easy to explain but I have a primary cancer in the prostate that is very aggressive along with many tumors on my bones (over 20 of various dimensions). The pain is chronic and affects the whole body varying in intensity as the day goes by. The diagnosis is a terminal one so no cure in sight. I think being positive has played a major part in my dealing with the situation so far and happiness is key. It is true after all that happiness is reciprocal so if I am happy then those around me will be and so on. 
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