Our Impact

A BALLSY APPROACH

Balls. Nuts. Testes. Family jewels. Love berries. Regardless of what you call them, even the most mature human will have to hold back a giggle at the mention of a man’s junk. It’s no laughing matter though, that testicular cancer is the number one men’s cancer for men aged 15-35. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that men in this demographic struggle with two things in particular; taking care of themselves, and asking for help. These struggles are often due to pride or embarrassment, and can result in men suffering alone in silence with sometimes deadly consequences. So how do you remove the barriers of pride and embarrassment?

That’s where Oneball steps in. We are, in a word, ballsy. We use humor and fun events to help men open up. But we’re not just fun and games. Since 2009, our 100 per cent volunteer-run organization has been enthusiastically fulfilling our mission of providing meaningful assistance throughout the testicular cancer journey and destroying the stigma around talking about your health, and doing it one ball at a time. Having raised over $400,000 for testicular cancer, we are funding/supporting life changing research, providing financial assistance to patients in need with the first all-digital financial assistance program (over $70,000 dispensed and 720M sperm stored since 2016), all while providing critical information in a relatable way – like talking to a friend.

IN FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

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DONATED

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SPERM STORED

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REAL
IMPACT AND
RECOGNITION

Though this may sound similar to many other cancer charities, it’s how we do these things that makes Oneball unique – an innovative approach that has been recognized time and time again. Here is a sample of some of our impact in the media:

MEDIA

A Cancer Community Incubator

Many years ago, Oneball went through a crisis of identity. The reality was that while testicular cancer is a terrible disease, it does not command the same focus, funding, or research as some of the larger cancers – such as prostate, lung, or breast cancer. We’ve always believed that Cancer is more than just a disease, it’s a community. As a member of that cancer community, we’ve always celebrated the successes of our fellow cancer organizations and shared in the heartbreak of some of the stories cancer sometimes brings. We’ve also helped other cancer organizations when and where we could. Even though we were small, we knew we could be loud, and we knew we could do more.

Our objective was to find a way for us multiply our impact – to help testicular cancer patients first in a way that could benefit the cancer community at large. Looking at the characteristics of testicular cancer – highly survivable, young digitally literate demographic, smaller population size – we found a way to turn some of our weaknesses into strengths by taking a page out of Silicon Valley playbook, and position Oneball as a Cancer Community Incubator. So what does this mean?

Broadly Applicable Research

We decided to take a bold stand with our research – that we would not spend out money to cure cancer. Instead, we would aim to multiply the impact of our research dollars by tackling the emotional and psychological side of cancer. Our partnership with the Tom Baker Cancer Centre’s Department of Psychosocial Oncology has led to groundbreaking work that has changed our charity’s way of engaging patients, and we hope can help clinicians and other cancers change their approaches as well.

Pioneering Digital Technologies

Whether it’s our in-house built digital financial assistance program, or partnering with tech startups – we believe that we should leverage the power of our digitally literate population to help drive what cancer support can look like for the next generation.

Supporting cutting edge therapies

Oneball is one of the few organizations that will provide funding for experimental therapies – believing that data is the most powerful force to try and finding new treatments. Additionally, we are also one of the few organizations that will openly fund cannabis products as part of our financial assistance program, provided it has been signed off by the patient’s medical team.

Bold and honest marketing

It’s no secret that we like to have a laugh at cancer’s expense, and this type of Ryan Reynolds-esque style of tackling a serious topic is a way of taking power away from cancer and putting it back into the hands of the patient – all while acknowledging how difficult and challenge the cancer experience can be.

By leveraging our population of younger and digitally literally survivors, we work on taking new approaches to old problems. We pilot these approaches at smaller scales and continually iterate to improve these approaches to ensure more positive patient outcomes throughout their entire cancer experience. Once these solutions are ready, we openly share these innovations with the rest of the cancer community – whether it’s boobs, balls, lungs, brain or skin cancer, we’re all in this together. We believe that in this way we can multiply the dollars of our donors to have even greater impact and can help pave the way for the next generation of cancer care. The whole experience taught us that any cause, no matter how small, isn’t limited to the extent of impact it can create – you’re only limited by your ability to innovate and think outside the box.