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Author's profile photo Former Member
Former Member
November 13, 2013 4 minute read

Support #LungCancerAwarenessMonth via Social Media

Paint your toes purple to fight lung cancer!

#PurpleToes Campaign                             

Inspirations can be found above and throughout this blog (yes, your pet can participate too).

While you are at it, remember that November is lung cancer awareness month, and we ask you to spread awareness via social media to dispel some myths, like that lung cancer only affects smokers.

So, before I will make it extremely easy for you to spread the word via a Tweet, on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or other channels, here a personal story:

The Tragic

In August 2013 Valerie, a beloved friend of mine, kind human being and a 53-year-young woman received her diagnosis of Stage IV lung cancer (it’s the final stage). Valerie has never been a smoker!

Before Valerie got diagnosed, she started to plan her wedding to Ralph, her partner of 25 years. Can you imagine their shock?

They recently got married in a beautiful ceremony in Yosemite Valley. While we were thrilled to be part of the ceremony, the lung cancer is their reality now. 

#PurpleToes Cure Lung Cancer

Kindness of Strangers

Through a friend, Valerie got connected with Bonnie J. Addario and her Lung Cancer Foundation.  Bonnie kindly fast-tracked her care to a leading lung cancer specialist at U.C. Davis.   

Since, Valerie has started chemo therapy. And while I am still in denial, it is breaking my heart to see all Valerie has to go through.

We need to make her smile.

Making Lemonade out of Lemons


One day, Valerie was having a pedicure, when Ralph came up with a fun idea to keep her spirits up and make her smile.

He painted his own toe nails with her favorite color: PURPLE.

Ralph invited others to join in, via Facebook, and soon many good friends, complete strangers, women, men, kids, entire families and pets, including dogs, cats and even a couple of horses participated.

They got #PurpleToes and sent Ralph a picture of it to be added to the Smiles for Val Mural.

#PurpleToes to Beat Lung Cancer                       

PLEASE JOIN IN

   Opi Purple for a Purpose Polish - #PurpleToes #BeatLungCancer HOW YOU CAN HELP US GO VIRAL via YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS TODAY


To Make It Super Easy, just cut / paste / retweet the content below:

1. Twitter (retweet or create your own tweet with a picture)

  • Sample Tweet 1 (you can RT it directly from the picture, at the bottom):
  • Sample Tweet 2:

2. Pinterest (upload a picture of your purple toes or pin the campaign website)

How to pin purple toes to Pinterest  

3. Slideshare

4. Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn (upload your own picture with a link to the #PurpleToes campaign site; Like and tag the Lung Cancer Foundation FB page)

Example FB Post for #PurpleToes Campaign to BeatLungCancer

  • See the example for FB & G+ on the left.
  • For LinkedIn, post as a status update (no personal picture).

5. Blog

  • Write a blog on your own or an external blog site. You are welcome to copy this content. Happy to send you the HTML.

6. All Other

  • If you have questions on any other social media post for other channels, please comment on this blog and I’d be happy to help. Would also love to hear any other ideas.

>>> Finally, I’d like to honor my friend Susan Woolf who is the mastermind behind this great campaign and has done all the leg work.

We both hope to soon see lots of #PurpleToes #BeatLungCancer hashtags and photos everywhere.  http://www.lungcancerfoundation.org/campaigns/purple-toes/purple-toes-donate/

Thanks for considering to donate $25 or more towards a cure.

Last but not least, please send good wishes to my wonderful friend Valerie!

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