Love Your Nuts Foundation

The goal of Love Your Nuts (LYN) is to raise awareness of (testicular) cancer by educating communities about the rarely spoken about cancer that often remains undetected in young adults due to our diverse society in South Africa, where cultural taboos, stigmas and a lack of knowledge about the subject is widespread. The problem in a Nutshell We believe that no men would die of testicular cancer if they knew about this young man's cancer and were aware of how to prevent it. Boys/men die for the following 2 reasons: 1) During puberty the body changes. Boys feel these lumps but think it is part of growing up. So they think it will go away again. If they knew that it could be cancer their... read more The goal of Love Your Nuts (LYN) is to raise awareness of (testicular) cancer by educating communities about the rarely spoken about cancer that often remains undetected in young adults due to our diverse society in South Africa, where cultural taboos, stigmas and a lack of knowledge about the subject is widespread. The problem in a Nutshell We believe that no men would die of testicular cancer if they knew about this young man's cancer and were aware of how to prevent it. Boys/men die for the following 2 reasons: 1) During puberty the body changes. Boys feel these lumps but think it is part of growing up. So they think it will go away again. If they knew that it could be cancer their lives could have been saved! 2) Men feel the lumps but find it too embarrassing to go to the doctor. If they knew that it could be cancer their lives could have been saved. If we bring awareness to all boys/men in an early stage in their lives they will be saved. Knowledge and early detection is the best weapon against cancer The Impact in a Nutshell The aim is to change young people's behaviour through education and awareness then it becomes a habit for them to look after their health starting at school level already. When we fail to educate and provide knowledge to the next generation, they have fewer opportunities of living a healthy lifestyle to become the future in their community and their country at large, where they are the future change agents to cultural taboos and stigma. The project in a Nutshell Our main project is to get a mobile app developed which will have 3 components: a) Cancer school programme - already developed b) Educational game - mobile app idea in a developing phase c) Option for Research to plug-in at the background of the app - reaching out to universities currently a) - Cancer School programme We have a cancer school programme for students from Grade 3 to 12. (age 10 to 18) Where can I find help if I am diagnosed with cancer? How can I support a family member or friend that is diagnosed with cancer? How my healthy lifestyle will lower my risk of getting cancer. How early detection increases the chance to survive cancer. What can I do in my community to educate and raise awareness? The programme is adapted to South African environment already. The content is general information on cancer (not just testicular cancer), manuals of prepared lessons for the teachers and worksheets for the students. The programme teaches students to look after their health and the importance of early detection. b) - Educational Game called "Cancer Smart" Cancer Smart is played on a mobile app and links in with the Cancer Smart School Programme. This educational game is full of "challenges" to get as cancer smart as possible. It can be played as an individual, class groups or as competitions between schools. Students love competition and games. Aren't we all gaming through life? The game can be played at school and the worksheets of the Cancer Smart School Programme can be used to deepen the knowledge. The game and the school programme complement each other. c) - Option for Research Currently we reaching out to universities and offer them a partnership for a research project that can benefit from my target group. We offer them to plug-in at the background of this app to get the data they need for their project. This doesn't have to be cancer (but preferred) and could be anything from obesity, fitness, AI, nutrition and behaviour from students in the big cities to the most remote rural areas in Africa.