My beef with the 2016 Breast Cancer Awareness 'Game'

As you've probably guessed by the title, this is not your normal catch-up with my activities over the last seven days. Although I have done a few things in the past week, one of them stuck out and has led me to writing this more in-depth blog that I do enjoy writing every now and then (or whenever I have something worth writing).

Last week, a Facebook friend of mine (who will not be named) posted a status exclaiming their delight at something they had 'achieved' recently. Naturally, I gave their status a 'Like' to congratulate them on their achievement, and continued with my day as normal.

A couple of hours later, I went back on Facebook to discover a direct message from that friend, which was along the lines of:

• Ha! You shouldn't have commented on/reacted to my post!
• It's your turn now - randomly post one of these statuses and pass on this message to anyone that comments on or reacts to it (statuses ranging from "diarrhoea again" to "used my boobs to get out of a speeding ticket" and "I think I'm in love with someone" to "I'm getting married")
• This the 2016 Breast Cancer Awareness game
• Don't be a spoil sport
• Don't let the secret out

In case you didn't know, I refused to follow any of the instructions and considered how such a 'game' supposedly raised awareness for breast cancer. I came to the quick conclusion that it did absolutely nothing for breast cancer awareness. Think about it. You've just congratulated a friend on their engagement and then realise you've just been baited into a 'game' that's part of a breast awareness campaign. You've now been through the fact that you already knew breast cancer existed, along with many other diseases and medical conditions of different types, and wonder how posting a random Facebook status will ever help. Welcome to my world.

I then took to Google and typed in "breast cancer awareness game" - and by 'typed in', I mean I just typed the first few letters of 'awareness' and the result already came up because of the number of people who had searched it before me. I found a lot of negativity towards the campaign, as well as a small handful of positive articles about it. I thought, "Good news first", so I clicked on one of the more positive ones. Apparently this started about half a decade ago and the first campaign managed to go viral and got a mention in the news. Whether this caused people to start donating towards Breast Cancer Research, I have no idea. But it seems as though the golden age of this game has been and gone. I found a negative article written by someone who found the game deeply offensive, given they had experienced relatives suffering from breast cancer and questioned the trivial nature of the game. I had to agree.

I've done plenty for charities in the past, and am intent on doing even more in the future. I've volunteered and run 10K and half marathon distances to raise money for them. Now that's what I'd call raising awareness and making a difference at the same time. I also did the ice bucket challenge for ALS/MND. While this was a campaign with similarities to the breast cancer awareness game, there was no hiding of what the ice bucket challenge was for. The only way you find out that the breast cancer awareness game is about breast cancer is if you react and get the message from whoever's post you reacted to.

All of this begs the question as to whether we're doing the right things to raise awareness or build a campaign around something. Unfortunately I've not got all day to write something (and you've not got all day to read my rubbish) so I'm going to have to leave that question hanging. If I were looking to run a campaign through social media, I'd have people doing something that is actually related to what the campaign's about. In the case of the breast cancer awareness 'game', you don't do anything related to breast cancer and it doesn't make you think for one second about it. It's going to take more than a few random, unrelated Facebook posts to gain support in society.

Ollie out.

Twitter: @Chowerz

Instagram: @chowerz

Back from Italy!

Good evening and welcome to your weekly update in the life of the Chinese kid that you don't really care about.

The last week has been eventful and uneventful at the same time. It started off brilliantly on Thursday with a visit to Siena, about an hour's drive south of Florence. We bought the all-inclusive pass, giving us access to 5 parts of the Duomo for just €15 each. The cathedral was much more decorative than Florence's Duomo, and we saw the baptistry, an underground museum, another museum and then finished it off with the viewpoint opposite the Duomo. Surprisingly enough it actually rained whilst we were in the cathedral, making a stark contrast from the five cloudless days that had greeted us upon our arrival in Italy. Nonetheless, we had nothing to complain about given how nice a place Siena is. The picture below is of "Il Campo" in Siena.

Friday was our 'chill' day - we went for a walk, played cards, read books and went swimming. A good way to end our stay in the villa. We ate out at a local place that was comfortably the best meal we'd had all week. We shared a bruschetta platter and two pasta first courses before tucking into rabbit and chicken for the main. Absolutely stunning meal.

My brother and I flew back on Saturday lunchtime to get ready for a game of cricket that was due on Sunday but had already been cancelled midweek. So, essentially, we flew back for nothing (apart from my brother's AS Level results). We left Pisa airport in clear blue skies and 30 degrees Celsius, and landed in Manchester where we were greeted by 35 mph winds that nearly blew us off the stairs down from the plane! I needed no further invitation to put my jumper on. I spent the evening at my friend's house for a BBQ...which had to be moved inside due to a BBQ failure, but the food was good - nice one Archie!

The last few days have been the uneventful bits. A visit to the cricket nets and teaching my brother how to cook a chicken dish have been the highlights. I think that says it all.

I'm off to cricket training in a minute or two. Bit of a rush getting this done but there's nothing else to report.

Ollie out.
Twitter: @Chowerz
Instagram: @chowerz

ITALIA.

After an exhausting day in Florence, we're back at the villa and are lounging about with the Olympics on the TV in the background. Earlier in the day I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to get this up in time but it seems to have worked out fine. So here we go!

I must admit that I'm feeling that tired that I'm prone to missing things out from the past week. Two things stick out from last Thursday. Firstly, I went for a haircut. Uneventful. Then in the evening I went for my second referee-related meeting in four days for an update on the Laws of the Game. If you didn't know, there have been 95 changes, so quite a lot to rethink before the new season starts!

Friday was spent eating all the leftovers we had before leaving for Italy, meaning my brother and I had an interesting lunch of vegetable soup, corn on the cob and something else that didn't really go with the other food. Then it was packing, out for dinner and an early night for a relatively early wake up.

Saturday was our flight to Italy, during which I experienced the most painful 10 minutes of flying I've ever felt, where my brain felt like it was being crushed as we started our descent. Nonetheless the rest of the day was fine and we had a good relax, apart from a wild goose chase trying to find an open restaurant.

On Sunday we went to San Gimignano, a place I'd previously visited on Assasin's Creed, which was beautiful, just like the cloudless weather. It was still a long day, meaning we had a rest on Monday before going to Greve in Chianti yesterday and Florence today. I think Florence may have some of the prettiest buildings I've ever seen. I'd recommend it to anyone.

My brother and I fly back on Saturday so we've got a couple more days in the sun before we return to the scheduled rain.

Ollie :)

Twitter: @Chowerz

Instagram: @chowerz

So. Much. Sport.

It's squeaky bum time. 10 minutes ago I was happily watching the Olympics. Then I realised I hadn't written my blog for the week. So I'm now sat here watching the Olympics with my laptop and am churning this out before I start to fall asleep reading a Lee Child book...

If I rewind to the back end of last week, two main things stand out for me that have happened since then - and I'm not sorry to say that it's pretty sport-based. Firstly, England started a fightback in the third test against Pakistan and come Sunday evening had wrapped up an excellent win. Thankfully I was able to watch them bowl Pakistan out due to my own cricket match being cancelled due to our opponents folding for the season.

The second big talking point of the week is, of course, the Olympics. The opening ceremony was at midnight on Friday for those of us in the UK, and I'm devastated to say I did not see a second of it due to commitments at a public house. I've been watching whatever event's on really, but have tuned into the tennis a few times. What's struck me at a lot of the events is the sparse crowd. I just try and picture whether the no.2 player in the world can rock up to a half-full Centre Court at Wimbledon and the organisers be happy with the outcome of their work. I'm 100% sure there's no way anyone would miss any part of the Olympics, as was seen four years ago in London. Nonetheless I'm enjoying the Games and hopefully Team GB can win more in the next couple of weeks!

I actually did play some sport myself over the last week. A bizarre tennis session last Friday included kids running onto our court to collect their mishit balls and their parents walking behind us mid-point. I did end up hitting one of the kids with one of my shots, but he just shook it off like any kid would (shows the strength of my groundstrokes really). On Saturday we travelled for an hour to play a cricket match that lasted only half the scheduled time due to a poor batting performance from our opponents. And on Monday I played my first ever round of golf, unexpectedly shooting a solid round of 59 shots over par - joking aside, I was pretty pleased. A quick assessment would suggest an absolutely lethal game within 150 yards of the pin, but very lacking from the tee.

Apart from all of that, I've been getting ready to go to Italy - we fly on Saturday morning. Hopefully I'll have some nice pictures come this time next week!

Ollie :)
Twitter: @Chowerz
Instagram: @chowerz

Home and dry!

So here I am, Thursday evening, knowing that this blog is a day late. I think I only realised it at about 23:45 last night when I was reading 'Personal' by Lee Child. I guess I'm saying it's better late than never. It's weird to think I'm on summer holidays and still don't have 15 minutes to write a blog. Pathetic really, isn't it? All I remember of my Wednesday was playing COD4 on Veteran, going to town to pick up a few pre-holiday items, mowing the back garden and cricket training. I think all of those were necessary events, particularly the gaming, so I think I'll give myself the benefit of the doubt this time.

We resume our journey in Prague, back to last Wednesday evening. I had some absolutely FIT pork ribs and we had a few drinks in the Old Town Square. At one point we were surrounded by about 15 kids, and I gambled by asking whether they were Spanish and they were! We had a great 5 minute conversation, including me asking one of them how old he was, to which he replied "30" - he looked no more than 14!

On Thursday we walked forever - to Prague Castle, back to our hotel, back to Old Town, and back to the hotel again. All worth it though, as the weather was great and the views were even better (see below). Another night drinking in the square and there were no complaints.

We got back on Friday evening and I was treated to an Indian takeaway - can't beat that - before resuming my career on the PGA Tour on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2014. I think I've won 5 out of my last 6 events so it's going well, thanks for asking.

The cricket last week was much better than the week before - two wins instead of two losses. Funnily enough we just don't seem to win when I contribute - it may be preferable to just be a specialist captain than pretending to bowl off spin or bat in the middle order. Hopefully the same will happen this weekend!

This week has been a bit of a rest - although it doesn't help that I've picked up a cough and cold - so I haven't done too much. Today I went to the driving range and hit some decent shots, surprisingly enough! Clearly my practice on the Xbox 360 has reaped rewards in real life.

Hopefully I have more to report next week (and on time)!

Ollie :)
Twitter: @Chowerz
Instagram: @chowerz