Saranne’s Award-Winning Case Study: Arm Yourself With A Punch Line, Develop Your Comic Perspective
I FRACTURED MY FUNNY BONE in February 1999. I heard “malignant tumor, surgery, radiation, chemo” and felt as if I’d forgotten how to breathe. The Cancer Team had gone home and I was told to come back Monday. Suddenly, an old magazine article about a man who had “laughed himself well” hijacked my thoughts.
During my first chemotherapy treatment, we organized a “Chemo Comedy Party,” including friends, family, sparkling cider, dessert, party favors and six hours of stand-up. I spontaneously invited the doctors, nurses, fellow outpatients and their family members to join us.
The “ComedyCures Epiphany” happened as Adriamycin coursed through my veins: I would launch a nonprofit organization to bring joy, hope and comedy into the trenches of treatment…..
It’s been almost ten years, three surgeries, 44 radiation treatments and too many chemo cocktails since my all-night comedy marathon. My severest personal challenge became my greatest professional accomplishment. Since the launch of our ComedyCures Foundation, we have entertained more than 400,000 people worldwide at live ComedyCures events.
My ComedyCures Co-Founder, Lauriel, is now grown, and we have shared our programs, strategies and comedians with the United Nations, Marines, orphanages, women’s shelters, schools, hospitals on several continents and families impacted by the September 11 attacks. The punch line is that I am cancer-free, and my funny bone healed.
Read more of Saranne’s story here on HotMommasProject.org, the world’s largest women’s case study library. Saranne is the overall winner of the Hot Mommas Project global case competition.
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