A Glasgow artist who lost her brother to cancer has received funding to start a business that will benefit other patients - making ‘sweary’ cards to make them smile.

From a small studio at the Rogart Street Campus, in Glasgow’s East End, calligraphy artist Jen Fisher created the hilarious cards to cheer up her brother, Han, when he was confined to a hospital bed and undergoing chemotherapy for metastatic bowel cancer last year.

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Glasgow Times:

Now, she hopes they will help raise a smile for other people battling the illness - with all profits donated to Cancer Support Scotland.

“The whole point is to give back to them and help them continue to support families who have to go through this horrendous experience,” she said. “They were absolutely incredible.”

“Knowing that these cards might give someone who’s having a really hard time a bit of a laugh makes me feel like I'm doing the right thing.”

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Han

The 40-year-old has been given a £500 cash boost from the Awesome Foundation to launch her project, which she hopes will go live on March 19, Han’s 43rd birthday.

It will be operated through the Bing Bong Mail Instagram shop, but the platform requires Jen to achieve an “established presence” before she can do so. In drawing the cards, the artist was inspired by her brother’s dislike of the cancer support literature’s analogy with a “journey”.

“He hated it,” she said. “If you look up the definition of a journey, it’s a trip or an excursion, and it might be a bit sh**, but once you get to your destination it’s supposed to be good.

“Cancer is more like a war, it’s a sustained attack on your body and on your mind.

“We already knew that his cancer wasn’t treatable.”

Jen then came up with the cards as a form of protest against cancer, which Han humorously called “the rat”. So, a year ago, the official “f*** the rat campaign” started.

The cards all portray a protester’s arm holding a placard with witty slogans and unconventional but honest words of encouragement.

For Jen, it was an opportunity to express her anger at the diagnosis: “It was a complete emotional release, I was pretty f***ing angry and I wanted to have a bit of a protest about it because I didn’t know what else to do.”

Her cards always aroused a chuckle from Han.

“He and I have a very similar sense of humour,” she said. “We would bounce memes off each other while he was sick and they actually inspired some of the cards.”

The pandemic made the experience even more painful for the family, who eventually chose to shield to remain close to Han, but they were still excluded from hospital appointments.

“We would just sit in the car park and it was awful. We wanted to be there to support him, plus I think it's impossible to take in all that information.

“Once you get past the point where they say you have cancer and it's incurable, do you listen to anything else? I don't think so.”

Glasgow Times:

Han passed last November, in the midst of the second wave of coronavirus.

“He said that he wanted us to talk about him and remember him and just celebrate the fact that he had been here,” said Jen. “I can’t think of a better way to do it than to put these out in his memory, knowing that he would have been having a good laugh.”

Glasgow Times:

Claire Benjamin, Head of Fundraising at Cancer Support Scotland, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Jen has chosen to support us through her Bing Bong Mail project.

“Supporting the wellbeing of those affected by cancer, we hear everyday the impact a cancer diagnosis can bring and receiving one of Jen’s cards could be just the thing to bring a smile to someone’s face on a day that feels full of anxiety and worries.”