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Monthly Archives: August 2015

PHD Media raises expectations for Race Against Blood Cancer with record donor drive

On Tuesday 25th in London, the PHD team managed to register the most stem cell donors to the register in any one drive to date.

Despite the soggy weather in the midst of summer, Judy Chan and her team of volunteers were raring to go and focused on the number of people they wanted to get signed up.

Not that it was ever really in doubt given the passion and sheer professionalism of the team but the final count for the day set a new record, for any corporate drive to now try to beat – the team at PHD with support from Alex Morrison and Lucy Baumgartner managed to register 131 new stem cell donors in just 6 hours – 24 more than its sister agency OMD International had valiantly achieved just 6 weeks prior.

Alex and Lucy from Race Against Blood Cancer who were involved in the organisation and present at the event can’t stress enough how wonderful the whole team was and how they all fully embraced the task at hand, keeping the environment friendly, informative, while managing to remain light hearted throughout.

In addition to signing up a significant number of new stem cell donors, many of the volunteers asked to become regular volunteers for Race Against Blood Cancer, with some of them planning to join us at this weekend’s Notting Hill Carnival where Race Against Blood Cancer will be supporting the ACLT.


Race Against Blood Cancer would like to say a massive thank you to everyone at PHD for making us feel so welcome and also give a special shout out to Judy Chan, Catherine Aylward, Jennifer Fuller, Claire Hall, Rebecca Burchnall, Charmaine StJohn, Lucinda Leonard, Victoria Crabb, Rachel Robinson, Shannon Monson, Faye Razzak, Dipesh Pattni, Tom Blaza and Lauren Thompson for their support on the day itself. You were all amazing.

 

We can’t wait to come back next year and here’s hoping to better weather!


Race Against Blood Cancer at Notting Hill Carnival

Race Against Blood Cancer to team up with ACLT at this year’s Notting Hill Carnival

On August Bank holiday weekend, Race Against Blood Cancer is excited to be supporting the ACLT with volunteers to help drive donor registrations at the Notting Hill Carnival.

Race Against Blood Cancer at Notting Hill Carnival

Known as one of the largest street festivals in the world and the biggest in Europe, the carnival has, since its start in 1966, grown to become a real icon of British culture. Originally calling on the British West Indian community the carnival has now become a key date for people from around the world to celebrate, making it a real hub of mixed cultures, ethnicities and fun.

Amid festive crowds, jerk chicken stalls and music stages, Race Against Blood Cancer will be present at the heart of the carnival from 12pm to 5pm on the corner of Lancaster Road and Ladbroke Grove.

ACLT LogoThis will be Race Against Blood Cancer’s first presence at the carnival and we look forward to supporting ACLT in what will hopefully become an annual presence to increase diversity on the donor register and help save lives.

 

If you are passionate, outgoing and keen to help on weekend 30th & 31st, please get in touch with alex.morrison@raceagainstbloodcancer.com who will give you more details.

 


Brixton Splash Donor Registration Drive

Race Against Blood Cancer makes a huge Brixton Splash!

Not knowing what to expect, it’s fair to say that Brixton Splash 2015 was a big success for the Race Against Blood Cancer.

A good turnout was never in doubt, with the annual festival having taken on an unofficial role as the warm up to Notting Hill carnival. However, if you listen to the surveys and feedback from previous events, it’s not known for being the best place to sign up new bone marrow or stem cell donors, with having a good time being the only thing on peoples mind.

We’re pleased to say that despite pessimistic forecasts, we were made to feel very welcome by all, as the team joined in the fun, breaking down a number of previously held myths. The day itself started slowly but that was the case for anyone with a stall. At one point we were stuck on 15 donor registrations for what felt like hours. While that’s 15 people whose lives might be saved, with every registration a significant milestone, the team had even bigger aspirations for the day.

Things really started to pick up when we proactively went into the crowd to engage with the public, geed up by Hayley and Alex taking to the stage to address the audience on mass, informing them of what we were doing and where to find us. From this the vibe changed and as a crowd started to form by our table, in typical British fashion, even more people started to queue, even though many of them didn’t know what for.

Overall the team had a fantastic time and the usual high level of enthusiasm that we’ve come to expect was in the perfect setting, with the energy from both young and old being consistently high, despite the sweltering heat. The hearty mix of Jerk Chicken, fresh lemonade and an abundance of Haribo on hand helped to keep everyone happy.

A special thanks goes out to today’s volunteers, from those who contributed a few hours to those who were there all day. The ethnic mix and age range of people who signed up to become a stem cell donor was a massive highlight, with the team signing up 81 potential life savers and just as importantly, spreading the word to hundreds more.

Also, a massive thank you to April for letting us use her shop and to Brixton Splash and in particular Shezal, who kindly accommodated us at the very last minute. Be warned, we plan to go even bigger next year after this year’s very successful trial run.

PS. Swab face is coming for you. Check out the pictures below.


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