Three years, one message: our Bladder Cancer Awareness Month 2026 Report

Someone notices blood in their urine. They tell themselves it is probably nothing, and they wait. For too many people, that wait is the difference between catching bladder cancer early and catching it too late.

Each May, Bladder Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) brings our global community together to change that. Bladder cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world, yet one of the most overlooked. With 1.9 million people living with bladder cancer and 614,298 people newly diagnosed each year, awareness and early detection are critical. When bladder cancer is caught early, survival can be as high as 90%.

This May, we also marked something bigger: the close of three years of “Feeling Unsure? Get Checked.” What began as one simple message has grown into a truly global movement, and this year we brought it to a close in our biggest way yet.

A campaign rooted in action

Over three years, “Feeling Unsure? Get Checked.” asked people to do one simple thing: if something feels unsure, get checked. At its heart remained the Unsure Icon, a symbol combining a drop of blood, the outline of a bladder, and a stopwatch, which asks people to stop and think twice about symptoms like blood in the urine. Now a familiar and recognisable emblem, the Unsure Icon has been worn on pins from clinics to stadiums around the world.

In 2026, we built on everything we had learned. We brought back Spot the Drop, our fast-paced reaction game that turns spotting a drop of blood into a challenge people want to share. Available in 16 languages this year, players around the world compared scores and challenged friends, colleagues, and even our own team.

We also introduced two new initiatives. The #GetChecked Challenge invited people to raise awareness on social media by sharing campaign messages, resources, videos, photos, and personal stories throughout May. And #UnsureStories put the voices of people affected by bladder cancer at the centre of the campaign, sharing real moments of uncertainty drawn from the experiences of patients, carers, and healthcare professionals to help others recognise symptoms sooner and feel less alone.

Expanding our reach

The impact of BCAM 2026 was felt across the globe:

✔️ 18 million+ people reached across our social media platforms
✔️ 75,000+ people visited our website to learn more about bladder cancer
✔️ 3,406 uses of our campaign hashtags, as people and organisations joined the conversation
✔️ Campaign resources available in 31 languages, our most inclusive and far-reaching campaign yet

Our activation toolkit gave anyone who wanted to take part everything they needed, in 31 languages: ready-to-use social media visuals, videos, printable posters, awareness cards, messaging guidance, and patient story content. We also held regular calls with our member organisations to understand their needs and help them make the most of the campaign in their communities.

Our campaign hashtags this year were #BladderCancerMonth26, #GetChecked, #UnsureStories, and #SpotTheDrop.

Strengthening advocacy worldwide

At the heart of BCAM are the patient groups driving change on the ground. Through our BCAM Grant Programme, launched in 2022, we continue to support impactful local initiatives in low- and middle-income countries.

In 2026, we awarded grants to three dedicated organisations: the Kenyan Network of Cancer Organisations (KENCO)in Kenya, PROONCAVI in Mexico, and the Feliciana Mshanga Memorial Cancer Foundation in Tanzania. Their campaigns took bladder cancer awareness into workplaces, markets, radio broadcasts, community walks, and hospital waiting rooms, breaking the silence around a disease rarely discussed and reaching people who might never have encountered the message online.

This year we also reshaped the programme itself. Rather than funding a new set of organisations each year, we now commit to supporting the same organisations over three years, giving grantees the stability to plan ahead, build on what works, and turn short campaigns into lasting local change.

Three years, by the numbers

Across all three years of “Feeling Unsure? Get Checked.”, we reached more than 41 million people in over 60 countries. Our reach grew each year, from 11 million people in 2024, to 12.5 million in 2025, to more than 18 million in 2026. Our campaign became more accessible every year too, growing from around a dozen languages in 2024, to 26 in 2025, to 31 in 2026.

Looking ahead

Bladder cancer awareness does not stop in May. Around the world, 1.9 million people are living with bladder cancer every single day of the year. The three-year campaign has ended, but its tools, its symbol, its partnerships, and above all its community carry forward.

This may be the final year of “Feeling Unsure? Get Checked.”, but it is far from the end of the story. In 2027, we will launch a new campaign, and we hope you will be part of it from the very beginning.

We are grateful to our members, partners, and sponsors for making these three years possible. We invite you to explore the full BCAM 2026 report below, and to share it widely, not to mark an ending, but to keep the conversations it started alive in every community it touched.