Kom Op Tegen Kanker has started another fight against cancer, launching its third yearly taxus collection together with Boomkwekerij Van Hulle B&C. Taxus is a common hedge plant, and a natural source of cancer drugs; its twigs contain baccatine, which happens to be an excellent antitumor agent. The thing is, it takes 12 tons of taxus to make only 1 kilo of baccatine.So we changed the name of the campaign from “taxus tegen kanker” to: “vergroot de hoop”. Dutch for both “make the pile bigger” and “make the hope bigger”. vergrootdehoop.be and a chain letter will invite people to ‘fight cancer, trim your hedge, bring it to your recycling centre and vergroot de hoop’. More than 200 ‘villages’ have already agreed to fully cooperate with this action. Flyers, posters, and a radiospot with Phara De Aguirre will further increase the amount of baccatine. Phara is a highly estimated (and sometimes feared) political journalist and tv host who recently recovered from breast cancer.Between June 15th and September 15th, people can take their freshly trimmed taxus to the nearest recycling sorting centre for free. With each cubic metre of taxus being worth 40 € (for Kom Op Tegen Kanker), hopes are high…

Posted by Frederik Vincx