About Cancer CARE Bangladesh (CCB)
Cancer CARE Bangladesh (CCB) is a youth-led nonprofit organisation in Bangladesh. CARE stands for Cancer Awareness & Recovery for Everyone. Its tagline is "Care Beyond Treatment" and its motto is "We Are Not Alone".
How it started
The organisation was founded on 13 December 2020, during the COVID lockdown, under the name "Bangladesh Hair Donation For Cancer Patients". Its founder, Simanto Mitro, had seen from childhood what cancer takes from a family, and noticed a gap: in Bangladesh, helping a cancer patient almost always meant giving money, which students and young people usually do not have. Hair donation offered a way for anyone to help in a big way without money. Research at the time found nobody organising hair donation in Bangladesh, so he started it: first with a Facebook page, a group and an Instagram account. The first donor was from Jashore. The organisation was later renamed Cancer CARE Bangladesh (CCB) as its work grew beyond hair donation into cancer awareness and mental health.
What the organisation does
- Cancer awareness: simple-language education, weekly online classes, and school, college and university campaigns.
- Mental health awareness: content and sessions with a special focus on young people, students, patients and their families.
- Hair donation: a nationwide system where anyone can donate 12 to 15 inches of healthy hair by courier, with a digital donor card, a tracked donation journey and a verifiable certificate.
- Free wigs: real-hair wigs made from donated hair, given completely free to cancer patients who apply online.
- Community: a support network of patients, survivors, families, donors, medical students, doctors and volunteers, including the podcast The Healing Voice.
Principles the organisation never breaks
- Donated hair is never sold.
- Donors and patients are never charged anything.
- Awareness and peer support only: never medical advice. Doctors answer medical questions in the weekly Doctor Q&A.
- Patients are featured with honour and consent; donors are featured with thanks, in turn, with no rankings or competition.
Honest status
The organisation is volunteer-run and online-first. It is not yet registered; registration is in progress, and running costs so far have been borne personally by the founder. A core team of three leads the work, supported by campus ambassadors and volunteers across Bangladesh.