Thumbs Up Cancer Down Inc

Cancer is a disease that impacts so many lives. In 2014, one of our friends, David Marcus, was diagnosed with colon cancer for the second time.

While receiving treatment, David posted a photo on Facebook. There he was with his signature two thumbs up. The photo was taken at the Comprehensive Blood and Cancer Center (CBCC). Accompanying David in this photo was a young man named Naythan Bryant.

Our hearts sank when we saw this photo. Naythan played on co-founder Kevin Charette's Northwest Baseball team in 2010. As soon as Kevin saw the photo, he called Naythan’s mom and went to CBCC to see him during one of his treatment sessions. It was at that time he found out that Naythan was diagnosed in May 2014 with a rare form of cancer, called Nodular Lymphocyte Predominant Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

While Kevin was at CBCC that day, he ran into David Marcus, who was also receiving treatment. The three guys took a photo together with their thumbs up to show that they were making the best of a tough situation.

When Kevin saw his friend, Cody Brutlag, that evening, he showed him the thumbs-up picture he took with David and Naythan earlier in the day. Cody immediately recognized the potential that photos like this one could have in inspiring others battling cancer. He said, “What if we start collecting thumbs-up photos from people around the world and create a campaign called ‘Thumbs Up, Cancer Down’?” It was at that very moment that the whole Thumbs Up, Cancer Down movement started.

Kevin posted his photo with David and Naythan on Facebook and asked others to do the same. In a matter of hours, picture after picture came in. We started with five pictures, then ten, and before we knew it, we received hundreds of thumbs-up photos from around the world. We wanted to publish all of the photos we received in a gallery that could be easily accessed by everyone. That’s when ThumbsUpCancerDown.com was born.

Once the website was up and running and the photos kept coming in, we hoped to capitalize on the momentum this movement generated. Our goal was to create something tangible that could be helpful for people battling cancer. We didn’t necessarily want to collect donations to be used for cancer research. This is absolutely important and life-saving, but there are already a number of organizations that do exactly that. We thought long and hard about how our organization could be different.

And then it occurred to us: Why don’t we ask cancer patients what they need? Through feedback from these patients, we developed Thumbs Up, Power Up Packs. These care packages are delivered free-of-charge to people undergoing chemotherapy. They include personal comfort items, such as blankets, beanies, hand sanitizer, pens and journals, and battery-backup phone chargers. The majority of funds raised from your donations go toward the development and delivery of these Power Up Packs, which are given to cancer patients, free of charge.