Spot the Drop Kenya: from awareness to a community

On Public Day of the World Bladder Cancer Patient Forum 2026 in Hong Kong, Marie Magenhann Cueto, Communications and Community Engagement Coordinator at the World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition, and Charles Muya from the Kenyan Network of Cancer Organisations (KENCO) presented the “Bladder Cancer Awareness Month showcase”.

Bladder cancer is rare in Kenya, rarely talked about, and has no patient community to build on. So when KENCO received a BCAM Grant, Charles and his team faced a simple question: how do you start a conversation that does not yet exist?

Their answer was not to build something new. It was to use everything they already had. Spot the Drop Kenya was built around one message, blood in the urine should never be ignored, and delivered through four channels:

• Digital. KENCO adapted WBCPC’s BCAM resources for Kenyan audiences and ran them across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X, powered by the “online warriors”, a digital advocacy team they already work with on tobacco control.
• Health workers. An existing partnership with Kenyatta National Hospital gave them a CPD-accredited platform and a webinar to help clinicians spot bladder cancer sooner.
• Communities. 2,000 brochures and 50 posters went out through health facilities and community networks in Nairobi and Kiambu Counties, with local language interpretation.
• Survivors. People with lived experience took part as advocates and storytellers, not just beneficiaries, which Charles called the single element that changed the tone of the whole campaign.

The results speak for themselves: 106,000 people reached online across 69 posts, almost 1,500 attendees across two webinars, and an appetite for bladder cancer information far greater than the team expected for a cancer with so little visibility.

Charles was honest about the hard parts too. Time was the biggest constraint, and because there is no established bladder cancer community in Kenya, finding survivors ready to speak publicly took far longer than planned. His advice to any member starting with no budget: start small, integrate with what you are already doing, and let your existing networks do the amplifying.

This was year one of a three-year grant. Year one was about visibility. The ambition now is to turn that visibility into a connected community of patients and survivors who can carry the conversation forward themselves.

Want to do the same in your country? Find out more about our BCAM Grant Programme, and read Three years, one message: our Bladder Cancer Awareness Month 2026 report to see what the campaign achieved worldwide.