Cancer Sucks
Hope Helps
Cancer Sucks Hope Helps ©, fashion for a cause, is a brand with a mission to raise attention and donate a portion of the proceeds from every sale to the New York Cancer Foundation to support their effort to provide hope with financial assistance grants for non-medical expenses and transportation grants to qualifying patients who are undergoing treatment for a cancer diagnosis in New York State.
Vintage Long Island
Metal Signs
The signs are there, Cancers are on the rise. Vintage Long Island Signs feature various iconic landmarks. These high quality signs are printed on 100% American Steel, the perfect wall decor for yourself or as a gift.
A Portion Of The Proceeds From Every Purchase Will Be Donated To The New York Cancer Foundation
Behind
The Brand
Ted Kole
Cancer doesn’t ask. It doesn’t warn. It arrives uninvited and unapologetic.
In September 2017, after a long run, I felt something like a muscle strain on my left side that didn’t feel quite right. Concerned, I scheduled a visit with my primary care doctor which led to a CAT scan—and later that evening, I received a phone call I’ll never forget. The words were direct and life-altering: “You have a mass in your right side kidney, and you need to find a surgeon immediately.”
​
Confusion and fear rushed over me but focused on locating a urologist was paramount. My wife, Dee, and I contacted Stony Brook University Hospital Urology and scheduled an appointment. An MRI followed and I received a diagnosis that changed everything, it was kidney cancer - Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma.​
An incidental finding that led to a life-saving nephrectomy of my right kidney. For years afterward, follow-up scans showed no signs of cancer’s return — and with each clean result, hope grew stronger.
But cancer has a way of testing even the strongest spirits. In late 2024, while being treated for borderline anemia at New York Cancer & Blood a PET scan raised concerns. At the same time a routine CAT Scan at Stony Brook revealed a small lung nodule. By March 2025, the nodule had grown and a biopsy confirmed the news no one ever wants to hear - the cancer had now metastasized to my lungs.
Today, my journey involves a combination of immunotherapy and target drug treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and NY Cancer & Blood support by an extraordinary team of Doctors, NPs, PAs and RNs.
With a newfound sense of purpose and desire to merchandise product with a give back, Cancer Sucks Hope Helps was born. Not just out of hardship, but out of resilience — a rallying cry for every person fighting, healing, surviving, and hoping.
This apparel brand is here to speak the truth, boldly and honestly: Cancer Sucks, cancer is cruel, cancer treatments are challenging. But one thing harder to break and remains constant, is that in the end Hope Helps.
Whether you’re a patient, a caregiver, or someone walking beside a loved one through the storm, you are not alone.
See light through darkness. Rally strength to fight. Reach for positivity not pity.
​
Fashion For A Cause
Cancer Sucks Hope Helps​
© 2025 Ted Kole. All rights reserved.
