McNaught took to the internet and found he could have badges made cheaply. After knocking together a simple design using Transport for London’s (TfL) logo, he ordered a batch of 100 to hand out at the hospital next time he was there.
“Most people are very nice and, if they realise that someone needs a seat, they will jump up,” he explains. “But quite often cancer patients don’t look like the stereotype of what people think they should look like. Not everyone loses their hair. And sometimes, after a long day of being treated like a patient in hospital, cancer sufferers just want to be treated like people.”
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The charity works on the understanding that people with cancer often want to grasp on to whatever independence they can get, their illness forcing them to rely on others for most things. “Most people can’t afford private transport for that many journeys anyway,” McNaught says. “But beyond that – if you can get there by yourself, it can feel like a small expression of agency. And for some people, having that badge in their pocket means having the confidence to make a journey that day.”
An unnamed 2016 Mayor of London candidate took an interest in the idea and put McNaught in touch with TfL’s equality and inclusion department. The company was already looking into how to make travelling easier for people with invisible disabilities and were “very supportive” of McNaught’s mission. He later played a key role in developing TfL’s ‘please offer me a seat’ badges.
Concerned the design would tie the badges too closely to London, McNaught arranged a new logo that would allow them to be pushed nationally. Now he receives orders from clinics all across the UK, including Manchester’s Christie Hospital, one of the largest cancer treatment centres in Europe.
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But he kept the charity small – with just two trustees, McNaught orders, packages and sends every badge himself. Around 7,000 have been requested online so far; he expects to have surpassed 10,000 by the summer. The badges are free to anyone who needs them and will remain so, funded entirely by donations.
McNaught credits the online cancer community – “an amazing, supportive space full of people doing what they can to get others through the tough times” – for spreading the word about the charity. In the future he wants people running marathons to wear the logo on their T-shirts, and for more cancer care parcels assembled by clinics to automatically come with a Cancer On Board badge.
Balancing the charity with his House of Lords day job can be trying, he says, but the feedback makes it worth it. “Something as simple as the email I got this morning,” he says. “It just said, ‘I got on the bus, I was wearing the badge, someone gave me their seat instantly’. It works! The general public doesn’t need to be talked into being kind.” Ultimately, McNaught’s goal is to raise enough cash that the charity can grant travel cards to people undergoing treatment.
The Cancer On Board founder’s illness is currently classed as ‘NED’ (no evidence of disease) – a replacement for the “old-fashioned” idea of remission. When a person has been out of treatment and healthy for five years, doctors will treat them as someone who has never had cancer if the illness ever rears its head again. McNaught will reach that five-year point in September. He says he’s going to have a party.
