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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to feel really strongly about the new Cancer Research UK ad

145 replies

Gattasyl · 27/04/2015 14:34

I keep hearing it on the radio and it's really starting to annoy the c*ap out of me. I think to keep putting the emphasis on cancer as a battle, as something you can win if you fight hard enough is just unfair and untrue and to be honest misleading.
This new one says 'so and so is a cancer fighter by night' because she's running the marathon...' I don't know... I find it really offensive towards people who have not 'beaten' the disease! AIBU??

OP posts:

BifsWif · 27/04/2015 14:36

YANBU. I hate the phrase 'battling cancer' too.

legolegolego · 27/04/2015 15:03

Do you know, I'd never thought of it like that. But you are right, it sort of implies that those who unfortunately don't survive, are somehow weaker. Hmm, food for thought.

DoorsAndWater · 27/04/2015 15:09

YANBU at all, I totally agree

Number666livesaMrMIller · 27/04/2015 15:12

YANBU. My mum has cancer, it's terminal and she won't be here for much longer.
It fucks me off completely that it's insinuated that she's not faught a battle hard enough.
Cancer is isn't a battle, it's a cancer. Those who survive are so fortunate but it doesn't mean those who don't tried any less.

Oscarandelliesmum · 27/04/2015 15:15

YANBU. I totally agree.

londonrach · 27/04/2015 15:16

Yanbu.

SunnyBaudelaire · 27/04/2015 15:18

YANBU I hate this personification of cancer = 'Cancer we are coming to get you' I mean ffs.
My mum died of leukaemia at the age of 60 guess she didnt battle hard enough.

SpringBreaker · 27/04/2015 15:20

I understand it to mean that the research is the fight against it.

hedgehogsdontbite · 27/04/2015 15:20

I think people are reading too much into it, it's just a turn of phrase. I say that my sister lost her battle against skin cancer. It doesn't bother me.

SunnyBaudelaire · 27/04/2015 15:21

well I have seen so many of those ads with people going 'come on then cancer!'
REally really stupid and annoying.

sleepyhead · 27/04/2015 15:22

One of the things my mum cried about when she got her diagnosis was that she wouldn't be able to "fight hard enough" that she wouldn't be "strong enough" that she wasn't "brave enough".

Once she'd got over the initial shock, she chose to follow the path of least resistance, believe that her doctors knew what they was doing, and otherwise got on with her life the best she could and tried not to think about the future too much.

She recovered (touch wood), because her cancer was treatable, but yeah, the pressure to be the "right" sort of cancer patient wasn't something she really needed.

SunnyBaudelaire · 27/04/2015 15:23

well maybe it doesnt bother you hedgehog but it does bother a lot of people - think about it - do we have a 'battle' against eg heart disease? no.
or those really stupid ads where they say in sonorous serious tones 'Cancer doesn't want you to fight' or some such shit.

chickensaresafehere · 27/04/2015 15:23

YANBU,Cancer's a bastard & I don't agree with the current advertising campaign.

Postino · 27/04/2015 15:23

FFS they're not still doing this are they?! I really thought the general opinion had turned and the battle analogy wasn't acceptable anymore

SunnyBaudelaire · 27/04/2015 15:25

"Cancer's a bastard" you see there it goes again! No cancer is not a 'bastard' it is a disease.

MrsTerryPratchett · 27/04/2015 15:28

My DF recovered because his cancer was treatable and early. My MIL died because hers was later stage, less treatable and more aggressive. She was much more of a battler than him. It's an unfair analogy and I hate it.

lullabyneedy · 27/04/2015 15:30

People read far too much into things. Don't the majority of us "battle cancer" by doing fundraising or sponsoring people who are.

I've sponsored many friends who have done race for life, none of them have had cancer but they are still battling against the disease.

Because someone dies from cancer that doesn't make them weak - I find it offensive some of you are suggesting that by being offended.

Pretty much everyone I know (myself included) has lost someone to cancer.

Musicaltheatremum · 27/04/2015 15:31

YANBU my husband died of cancer. Horrible illness. And it would help if they helped research the rarer cancers like he had. Proportionately brain tumours get 10% of the funding they need. As do many other cancers.

SunnyBaudelaire · 27/04/2015 15:32

maybe youre right lullaby.

Another one that bothered me was women 'battling cancer' by not wearing make up? and posting pix of themselves on facebook?

wtf was that about?

shewept · 27/04/2015 15:33

Tbh there have been quite a few cancer adverts that pissed me off over the years. There was one where a little boy was looking in the mirror and his mum was behind him, reaching over to fasten his coat or put a hat (something like that) and when he turned round she was gone. Implying she had died and he was just trying to imagine her there. We had just lost my auntie who left a 10 year old boy behind and this advert caused distress everytime. If he saw it he was inconsolable, if my uncle saw it he was in pieces. Adverts were banned in the house for years. When adverts came in the channel was switched to bbc. It caused alot of unneeded extra heart break.

This cancer battle pisses me and my uncle and cousin (cousin is now in his twenties) because they feel the implication that my auntie is gone because she just didn't fight hard enough, she didn't fight hard enough to stay with her son.

Its hard enough to go through, without having this shit pushed in your face.

SurlyCue · 27/04/2015 15:35

Totally agree OP.

Lilymaid · 27/04/2015 15:36

I've got advanced cancer. I'm not battling (actually I'm at work and haven't got the time for a fight) but complying with treatment and making the most of life.
I can't beat it ... I hope that researchers/medics will be able to do that for me.

TedAndLola · 27/04/2015 15:36

Absolutely hate it. Perhaps it helps some cancer patients when cancer is anthropomorphised and they can think of it as a living thing with a will who is out to get them, but surely not the majority? The 'war' language is awful for reasons said above.

I have to turn off the TV / radio when Cancer Research ads come on.

Bue · 27/04/2015 15:41

Totally agree. I have no clue why cancer is the only disease that has to be approached as a "battle". It really hacks me off.

Luckystar82 · 27/04/2015 15:43

YANBU

I have thought this for years. I don't understand the semantics around cancer. I don't think people stop and think about the implications of describing cancer as a 'battle' and label people unfortunate enough to be diagnosed as 'fighters' who are 'strong' and 'don't give up'. This implies people who 'lose the battle' are 'weaker' and have 'given up on life'. When in reality people have NO CONTROL over beating cancer. It is a total lie.

The other inappropriate word used all the time without people thinking what it really means is "tolerance", We are a tolerant society, tolerant of gay people and black people etc etc. When you actually stop and think about it, tolerance means you are willing to put up with something that you actually don't like and would prefer not to exist. It is a horrible word that is used universally in a positive way by politicians, the media, 'supposed' intellectuals.

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