ABC campaign: Angus Olsen the man behind @idrawchilhoodcancer
Here we present the exclusive interview with Angus Olsen, creator of @idrawchildhoodcancer!
Discover how his art and personal experience inspired the "ABC of Childhood Cancer" campaign. Learn about his mission to raise awareness and support families dealing with childhood cancer.
Don't miss the extraordinary work of Angus. You can follow him on Instagram and visit his website.
Could you introduce yourself briefly and talk about your work as an artist and content
creator?
My name is Angus Olsen, from a very young age I could draw and pursued it. That eventually led to working at Disney Studios for a short time. After that I did various commissions and in 2015 a friend said I should start showing my work on instagram. There i experimented with creating content for Baristas as I work in the cafe industry. I knew how to draw, I knew how to manage social media but it wasn’t until my daughter Jane got sick with cancer that those skills really found their home.
Why did you start “drawing childhood cancer? What moved you to start this platform?
In 2016 at the age of 2 my daughter Jane was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma. I did dome drawing in the cancer ward while she was sick. As I began to try and teach myself what cancer was and how to help her I began meeting other cancer dads online. They all brought their own perspectives and expertise of which mine was drawing. I began to upload and show them my work and they told me that I was creating for their perspective. Communicating the things of cancer therapy there are no words for. I changed the name of Janes facebook page that kept family up to date on her progress to I Draw Childhood Cancer. Eventually I made a little e-books on Nasal Gastric Tubes for children’s and it was so popular I realised there was a massive gap in basic paediatric oncology communication and set myself the task of filling that gap.
How do you feel knowing that the CCI campaign ABC of Childhood Cancer was inspired by your work?
I am honoured that Childhood Cancer International have been inspired to bring better communication to oncology because of my work.
How did the idea for the ABC of Childhood Cancer campaign come about?
Every September (Childhood Cancer Month) I tried to do a big project, something really special. One year I asked my followers to help me build an oncology alphabet to illustrate and daily I would draw and upload a letter.
What is the main message you hope to convey through your art and campaigns?
That you are not alone, the bedside of a seriously ill child is a very lonely place to be, I hope they know there is an army of people doing their best to beat cancer and bring peace back to their lives.
What is the long-term goal of your work in raising awareness about childhood cancer?
I'm creating a definitive library for seriously ill children one book at a time. It may take the rest of my life. Any possible little thing that can happen in oncology I want a book for children to help them understand and get through.
What have been the main challenges you have faced when working on raising awareness about childhood cancer through social media?
My work is internal to paediatric oncology. it’s unique in that it does not consider the general public who may not understand. It’s extremely difficult to articulate how my work helps to people unfamiliar with oncology. This is the difference as an independent volunteer submitting myself to an informal peer review of parents and medicos through social media. If I were a charity I would need to engage the general public to raise funds and my work would loose it’s directness. The downside of this is I need to keep working my day job making coffee, this occupies me full time when I could be spending that time creating content daily.
What have you learned throughout this process?
The International Childhood Cancer community is a close family, we come from all nations of the earth yet speak a common language in an effort to end this ancient affliction. There is always someone, somewhere who can offer real empathy and useful advice rather than sympathy. Social Media for all its flaws has been a powerful force for good in the paediatric oncology space.
Is there anything else you would like to share with our audience at Childhood Cancer International?
Keep on moving forward, focus on the task in front of you, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. Even now 7 years after my daughter reached remission everything has changed in oncology. The future keeps getting brighter for our children as medicine advances.
