Salivary Gland Cancer UK Mascots

Meet Our Mascots

We’re thrilled to introduce three wonderful SGCUK mascots who embody the spirit of our community.

At Salivary Gland Cancer UK, we believe in fostering a sense of community, compassion, and understanding. Our mission is to provide support, raise awareness, push research forward, improve treatments, and inspire hope for everyone affected by salivary gland cancer.

These delightful characters were brought to life by a talented artist, Omi Gates, from our community, and each one represents unique qualities that we hold dear to the values, mission, and aims of Salivary Gland Cancer UK.

You can learn more about our 8 aims here.

Wilson the Dog

Dogs are universally recognised as man's best friend. Wilson represents loyalty, protection and companionship.

Like a true friend, he’s always there to offer comfort. Wilson reminds us that we’re never alone on this journey.

Wilson is a sincere and determined little chap. He knows salivary gland cancers are rare and will do all he can to help raise awareness!

He's not the sportiest of dogs, and his special SGCUK shirt is a bit tight, but he'll be there on the starting line of every fundraising event, ready to do his very best.

Monty the Giraffe

With his long neck, Monty encourages us to look up, smile and see beyond the immediate challenges.

He symbolises resilience and the ability to rise above difficulties while maintaining grace, good humour, self-care and perspective.

The giraffe is a gentle animal; protective, patient and clever. Giraffes are all about the head and neck, and of course, that's where most (but not all) salivary gland cancers start.

Monty is an optimist and a bit of a wally. He's the friend who will pull a face to make you laugh at the most inappropriate moments.

He'll join in with any crazy fundraising idea, and in fact, most of those ideas will come from him!

‘Duck’ the Duck

The duck's characteristic head-down-tail-up pose as it dabbles for food is the classic ‘can't-face-this’ imagery many of us can relate to.

Duck is more than happy to help SGCUK with raising awareness on the SGCUK socials, especially as it means she doesn't have time to address her own issues.

She's a procrastinator, a ‘pretend-it's-not-there-and-it'll-go-away’ type of character. She doesn't just avoid the elephant in the room, she's adamant there isn't one.

She reminds us that it’s important not to ignore symptoms, and to seek professional opinions (multiple if needed) to get the answers we need.

Meet The Artist: Omi Gates

Omi lives in the borderlands between England and Wales, in a tiny cottage with her tiny family and a tiny dog named Archie. Archie is very hairy and very opinionated and almost certainly an influence for SGCUK's mascot Wilson.

A self-taught artist, Omi likes to work digitally in Krita or Infinite Painter, prefers black & white or greyscale sketchy styles, but likes to use a pop of colour here and there.

She takes inspiration from the natural world, adores mice, but also loves to draw robots and old tools and things made of metal and wood. She typically warms up by sketching a bit of domestic plumbing.

Omi's work has been described as wholesome, sweet, amusing, relatable, touching, and cooool! which makes her totally burst with happiness and gratitude.

Her illustrations have been published in printed magazines such as The Countryman, The Woodworker and Quercus Magazine, all of which are sadly no longer around. Incidentally, Woolworths also went out of business shortly after Omi did a stint there... Just sayin'

Unfortunately, Omi was diagnosed with Salivary Duct Carcinoma (SDC) in April 2023. She had a parotidectomy and selective neck dissection followed by six weeks of radiotherapy.

In 2024 the cancer returned and she had a radical neck dissection, more radiotherapy and some chemotherapy. She is now under close surveillance and we're all keeping our fingers crossed.

Omi shares her illustrations on Instagram @OmiGates and is delighted to be able to support SGCUK by creating some characters and other images to help promote awareness of rare salivary gland cancers.