Last December a project was launched by a pharma client that Red Fern and BCT Partners helped create. The focus of this work
is on *another* problem worth solving: The prevalence of breast cancer (number of diagnoses and severity) among Black women in this country. A few facts about this, thanks to the Novartis “More Than Just Words” campaign:
Black women under 35 years of age in the US are diagnosed with breast cancer at twice the rate of White women the same age.
Black women with breast cancer are 40% more likely to die of breast cancer than White women in this country.
32% of Black women (compared to 13% of White women) believe their healthcare concerns will be dismissed or not believed because of their race.
Novartis; More Than Just Words research (https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8878351-novartis-commits-addressing-racial-disparities-breast-cancer-screening-treatment-care/)
My interviews with survivors and with health care professionals was – as it always is – so humbling and educational. The stories they shared, the articulation of key moments that matter in the diagnosis and treatment process – whether that is in a GP’s office or during chemotherapy – was critical to creating the storylines of three characters.
This project was destined for Meta Quest headsets. We did our part with our BCT Partners and the contributions of the client team to secure locations and talent, develop scripts that got to the issues, and captured third and first-person perspectives to provide richness of experience to the audiences.
And we had some fun. Of course.
Pictured: Emma Jackson as Aliyah.
Pictured at the top: Kat Khietnha as nurse Mei; Rasool Jahan as Johnnie.
Red Fern 