AIS offers support to youth charity

Youth charity Harrison’s Fund is launching a hard-hitting press ad, under the headline “I wish my son had cancer”, to raise vital funds to fight Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy.
The campaign, devised by AIS London, tells the plight of a six-year-old boy, Harrison, who has the degenerative condition that will kill him slowly and painfully before he’s 20. The text reads: “Unlike cancer, there’s no cure and no treatment. And because you’ve never heard of it, very little funding either.
It continues: “My only hope is to raise as much money as possible for the research scientists. They’re close to a major breakthrough. Your £5 will can get them even closer.”
It is understood the campaign has been produced because Harrison’s father, Alex Smith, is a friend of the agency.
AIS London describes the ad as “the strongest, hardest-to-buy concept” which “encapsulates how Alex and the parents of other sufferers of terminal diseases feel. It’s the truth. And the truth can be the most shocking and powerful thing you can say”.
The ad asks the public to make a donation by text or via the Harrison’s Fund website, harrisonsfund.com.
Alex Smith said: “Funding for cancer research is epic in its vastness and reach, led by some incredible charities, doing amazing work, but there are also other charities, like Harrison’s Fund also working incredibly hard, investing in cutting edge research, backed up by some of the leading scientific minds in the world, to try and save a generation of children before it is too late. But we have to make time for these children to be able to live their dreams.
“My hope is that this advert if nothing else will open up a conversation, make people think, look wider than the big players, with the big presence and big budgets and just perhaps join me to help children like Harrison and rid the world of Duchenne.”