The power of a hashtag.
An online movement started by a group of friends raised over 200 dollars for a local hospital.
All because one of these friends hated hashtags.
Now this cause has become more personal after their friend's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Reporter Shannon Wilson has their story.
Travis Tinney hated hashtags.
So his friends decided to annoy him.
They started the hashtag #TravisTinneyHashtagMovement to mock him. Tinney thought it was kind of funny.
"I wasn't quite sure anything would come of it," Tinney said. "About two weeks after it was done, I got a letter in the mail saying 'thank you for your donation,' and everything like that, and I was like 'wow they were serious.'."
The Travis Tinney Hashtag Movement helped raise 240 dollars for a local children's hospital.
A short time later the cause became more personal for Travis.
Travis' mother Janet Tinney has had many call backs to the doctor for biopsies and procedures following a mammogram due to very dense breast tissues.
"The call wasn't as good this time," Janet said.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer. Tinney went to a local surgeon in North Platte, who recommended her to Nebraska Medicine's surgical oncologist Dr. Edibaldo Silva.
Thanks to a newly improved treatment, after two rounds of chemotherapy, Janet Tinney is now cancer-free.
Tinney's experience inspired the friends to revive the hashtag movement.
"You don't find young people like this very often who would go and do this," Tinney said.
By using the same hashtag, the group is raising money so cancer research can evolve at the Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.
From April 12th through the 19th, the family is asking people to post the hashtag #TravisTinneyHashtagMovement. One hundred percent of the proceeds will go to cancer research.
"I've been very blessed, very blessed," Tinney said. "The more people that they can bless, you know, the more power to them. It's just amazing and that's awesome."
For more information on #TravisTinneyHashtagMovement visit https://nufoundation.org/unmc/fred-and-pamela-buffett-cancer-center/travis-tinney-hashtag-movement?utm_source=TTHM16&utm_medium=TTHM16&utm_campaign=TTHM16
