#HaveYouCHECT Campaign Urges Parents to Use Smartphone Camera To Detect Childhood Cancer

If only all forms of cancer were this easy to detect.

UK non-profit Childhood Eye Cancer Trust (CHECT) has launched a print campaign (I know, I know… keep reading) which aims to raise awareness of a simple early detection method for determining whether or not a child has Retinoblastoma, a rare but possibly fatal form of eye cancer in infants and young children.

The Wunderman-created poster campaign, located in doctor’s offices and day care centers, features kids who have survived retinoblastoma and explains that flash photography is one of the easiest ways to detect Retinoblastoma.

The print campaign, which uses reflective ink, urges people to take a picture of the ad to see what the eye cancer looks like in the resulting photo.

An accompanying video notes that everyone has a tool to detect Retinoblastoma right in their pocket; their cell phone. The video explains that Retinoblastoma shows up as a white pupil in a flash photograph.

Of the notion to employ cell phones, Wunderman ACD Evan Jones said, “Flash photography has been recognized as a key to diagnosis for quite some time. What immediately struck us, though, was the power parents have to see the warning signs themselves using something they carry around with them all day, everyday: their smartphone.”

Once parents take flash photos of their own children, they are encouraged to share the photos, along with the campaign video, across Twitter and other social channels using the hashtag #HaveYouCHECT.

Didn't know about this. Amazing. Children's eye cancer can appear in a flash photo http://t.co/pD0zpmSK71 #haveyouCHECT

— Claire Browning (@ClaireyBrowning) December 9, 2014

Wunderman worked long and hard to make sure the poster technology worked accurately. Wunderman ACD Stefanie Digianvincenzo said, “We spent six months developing this to ensure not just that the posters would work with any kind of camera with a flash, but that the reflective ink we chose to use would produce the right kind of bright white.”