FAST Heroes

Agency: Boehringer Ingelheim

Stroke is one of the biggest reasons that children lose their grandparents to disability or death. In fact, one in four people will experience a stroke in their lifetime.

However, 80% of patients don't realise they are having a stroke until it's too late. In cases where they do, nine in ten don't call an ambulance but speak to a family member first. We realised that to save lives, people needed educating on stroke symptoms. And families needed to learn how to respond in a stroke-related emergency.

Enter FAST Heroes, a ground-breaking global health awareness campaign that embraces the power of children to help make a difference. Leveraging young children's enthusiasm for learning and sharing, we created an innovative and memorable educational programme that could be implemented in kindergartens and schools across the globe.

With a bold and memorable mission - to save the world, one grandparent at a time - children were educated and empowered through visually striking, fun and engaging materials that focused on spreading the life-saving knowledge across the entire household.

Despite only launching in schools during March 2021, the campaign is already achieving great traction. Almost 300,000 life-saving lessons have been taught to 60,000 kids in over 2,800 classes in 24 countries, with many more to come. And research shows the knowledge is being passed on to family members and understood.

An ambitious collaboration between multiple partners, including the World Stroke Organization, the FAST campaign is on course to help save many lives in the battle against stroke.