Harrison Smith is six years old. He has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. There’s no treatment, no cure and very little hope.
In January 2012, his Dad, Alex, set up Harrison’s Fund. A charity dedicated to raising the millions needed for research.
Not easy when no-one’s heard of it, and you've got no budget. So he asked if we could help.
The Evening Standard offered us some space. Which was a start.
Then Alex told us something that shocked us. That sometimes, he wished his son had cancer instead. A disease people had heard of and that was treatable and, possibly, survivable.
This desperate thought summed up the struggle, frustration and despair of a parent with a child suffering from DMD.
We knew it would make a powerful ad. So powerful, we feared to run it. But Alex didn’t.
His courage paid off. He landed appearances on ITV and the BBC, newspapers covered the story and online, it really took off.
Visits to the website went up by 17,000%. Facebook reach increased by 800%, 99% of which was viral reach beyond the existing community. And people debated and donated to the cause from all over the world.
Major businesses, like Barclays Capital, pledged support. A documentary is now in the pipeline. And direct donations went up by over 200% to £65,000 and counting.
But most importantly, there’s now more hope for Harrison and boys like him. Not a bad result for one very brave client. And a 25 x 4 black and white press ad.