Young Lives vs Cancer
Sam’s Story: A Journey through Cancer
The emotional and psychological impact of cancer on young people and their families.
The brief
Young Lives vs Cancer plays a critical role for children and young people facing a cancer diagnosis. It offers a range of services for patients and their families, including day-to-day support provided by its team of social workers, accommodation for families near hospitals, and financial support.
The charity approached us with a need for an animation to highlight the key challenges faced by young people and families at various stages, from diagnosis to treatment, recovery, and long-term effects, in a highly relatable way.
It wanted this new content to convey the emotional, social, and psychological impact of cancer on children, young people, and their families. The key character in the animation needed to be carefully created, authentic and based on real experiences, but gender neutral and broadly representative, so that it could reflect any young person’s experience of cancer.The animation would be shown at Young Lives vs Cancer’s upcoming staff conference. It would also be shared on its digital channels and used for other activities such as external presentations and pitches.
The approach
Where animation is concerned, restrictions are often allies rather than enemies.
With this project, time was the biggest restriction. This, combined with the need for gender neutrality and an ‘every person’ feel, focussed our thinking and led us to a more abstract depiction of the human form. From that starting point came everything else.
We knew this story needed to feel highly personal and would be based on real experiences. But, because it also had to tell a story that would resonate with many young people living with or beyond cancer, we realised one specific real life character wouldn’t be appropriate. So we opted for a scripted piece voiced by an actor. The dialogue was drawn from past case study material and, in partnership with the charity, we honed it into a genuine, hard-hitting narrative with the sort of language which would feel genuine and not 'scripted'.
Visually we knew we wanted to be in the subconscious mind of a young person and so a painterly, sketchy style was applied to any artwork. The depictions of people were paired back to the very bare bones of what could constitute a human being, and the colour palette was similarly minimal and functional.
Because of the style we were easily able to transition from a metaphorical scene to a depiction of reality, while keeping to the same visual language. The emotional journey had to hit hard. We did this using a combination of the pose of the character, the emotion in the voice acting and the sound design. Colour played an interesting part - although the story is quite dark at times, we made the decision to never use black, rather a deep saturated blue.
Output
1 x 3 minute standalone animation for online use
1 x 5 minute animation and case study film for conference
The result
We delivered two versions of the content. One based on the original brief which includes just the animation, and a second version for the Young Lives vs. Cancer conference with ‘real life’ case study videos interspersed throughout.
We were delighted to be able to bring this story to life. It’s based on real individual’s accounts, but expresses ‘every person's’ story of cancer. It reflects so many experiences and so many will relate to it.
Client feedback
“We couldn’t be happier with the animation MOREVER created for us. The quality of the film exceeded our expectations, especially given the tight timeline. Their expertise, flexibility, and positive, collaborative approach made a potentially challenging project smooth and rewarding.
The impact of this film will be substantial—it’s a powerful piece that will resonate with viewers and drive real engagement with our mission. We highly recommend them."
Hannah Beattie, Head of Internal Communication and Engagement
Young Lives vs Cancer
Credits
Art Direction – Dan Mellor
Producer – Tom Windsor
Artwork and animation – Brigitte Rose
Voiceover artist: Narisha Lawson
Script consultant – Dan Mellor