Six year old Ihsan Khan, from the Telford area, urgently needs a stem cell/bone marrow match to help treat his Aplastic Anaemia.
We are working with Ihsan’s family to recruit potential donors at events being held this week. These being:
Friday 3 May 2019 4.30-7.30pm Jamia Masjid Ghousia, Regent Street, Wellington, Telford, TF1 1PF
Saturday 4 May 2019 – 12-3pm Telford Central Mosque 88-90 King Street, Wellington, Telford, TF1 1NZ
If you are unable to get to either event but still want to sign up, you can do so here. Please help: even if you aren’t a match for Ihsan, you could be for one of the other 2,000 people in the UK currently waiting for a match.
Our grateful thanks to Rebecca Richards – the newest member of our volunteering team -who ran her first two donor drives for us last week. Her first took place at Bloor Homes (Midlands branch) where she signed up 20 potential stem cell donors and she then registered a further 20 at Sunday’s UK Triathlon Events Birmingham Run. Many thanks to Rebecca for a great week of sign ups, those who allowed us to host our donor drives and to all those potential lifesavers who registered with us.
We would also like to show our appreciation to Amie, James, Jen and Afy for volunteering their time last week and helping to help raise awareness of the work we do. Thank you everyone!
If you’d like to find out more about volunteering for the charity and running your own donor drives on our behalf, please contact us.
Thank you to the Darbar Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji in Walsall for a wonderful experience on Saturday where we went along to register potential stem cell donors.
We’d also like to show appreciation to our team Gemma Elsmore, Sophie Gemma, Beth Elsmore and Joanne Wade for giving up their time on the day to help spread awareness and register potential lifesavers!
In this video you’ll learn more about us, our impact and why we wish to improve the lives of people with blood cancer.
To help us to give every blood cancer patient the equal prospect of a quality stem cell match, and a better chance of survival, please consider supporting our work by making a monthly donation here.
We would like to give a special thank you to Carl Ikeme, Matt Murray, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Twenty5Eight who have helped us raise awareness of the need for more stem cell donor registrations, and for their support in the making of this video.
Last Saturday Race Against Blood Cancer hosted the ‘Remembering Khaleel’ fundraiser event in memory of young Telford boy Khaleel Khan who sadly lost his life following a battle with Leukaemia last year.
Despite the heavy down pours throughout the day, the event was a massive success with a fantastic turnout and huge support from the community. Khaleel’s little sister Simra volunteered for a sponsored hair cut which also took place on Saturday – she raised over £300 for the charity as well as donating her hair to the ‘The Little Princess Trust’ to make wigs for children with cancer. It was an emotional and proud moment for the family, combined with such a lovely atmosphere which was a touching tribute to Khaleel.
We would like to say a massive thank you to Duke York Trench pub in Telford for hosting; the performers, those who donated equipment, raffle prizes and promotional material, and all of the community who turned out to support the event. We would also like to thank all of the Race Against Blood Cancer volunteers for their help on the day and our community engagement officer Gemma Elsmore for organising such a memorable day for Khaleel’s friends and family. Over £1300 was raised which will enable us to continue our work in growing and diversifying the blood stem cell donor register.
Gemma also reached her personal target of registering 1000 donors since starting with the charity last summer – we are proud of her achievement which gives hope to many patients waiting for life saving transplants.
Over the weekend Insteps Dance Academy and Fullout Dance Academy, based in Ludlow and Leominster, hosted their annual dance show. They performed 4 shows over 2 days to over 600 people.
Once again, this year they chose Race Against Blood Cancer as their charitable partner and held a raffle to raise much needed funds. Not only was the weekend a great success for the academies but they also managed to raise £354 for our charity.
We would like to say a huge thank you to all those involved – these funds will help us to continue to raise awareness and register more potential lifesaving blood stem cell donors!
Last Sunday Race Against Blood Cancer held a donor drive supporting Flagz Mas Band at Wandsworth Arts Fringe in London, where the team worked hard to sign up more potential lifesaving donors to the blood stem cell register.
We would like to thank all those that showed up to register and to the organisers for allowing us to pitch up and engage with the community. We would also like to give a special thanks to the work of our team members Alex Morrison and Lenah Lang who continue to help those people needing lifesaving transplants.
Yesterday, on a cold January morning the Race Against Blood Cancer team held their first donor drive of 2018 at the Telford 10K in Telford Town Park, signing up 34 potential life-saving donors.
Donor Drive volunteer team in January at Telford Town Park
The team would like to show their appreciation to Telford Athletic Club for allowing us to host a donor drive at the event. We’d also like to say a massive thank you to our community engagement officer Gemma Elsmore and her fab team of volunteers Natalie White, Rebecca Richards, Kayleigh-Jamie Millis, Sarah Elsmore and Danielle Hoyle.
And finally, a big thumbs up to Joe Bates, Tom Sheppard and Andrew Pugh for running and representing the charity!
Remember if you’re organising an event this year and would like us to be involved by hosting a donor drive then please get in touch!
Race Against Blood Cancer would like to thank Andrew Lloyd for organising the charity football reunion on Friday 29th December for Madeley Cricket Club FC.
Many of those who do so much for the charity had all played together for numerous years and it was great for them to get back together after nearly 10 years since they stopped playing.
Madeley Cricket Club F.C. 10 year reunion photo
Just like the old days it was back to the Cricket Club after the footy for food and several beers! We would like to say a special thank you to Madeley Cricket Club for their kind donation, and also massive thank you to Amber Davies for cooking food for 28 starving men!
The event which was a great success with over £300 raised for the charity, and plans now underway to organise the next one!
On Sunday 5th November, Joe Bates, Andrew Pugh and John Fawcett took on the most famous marathon in the world – the New York Marathon.
For Andrew and John, the prospect of navigating the 26.2 mile course was a little less daunting as two marathon veterans. For Joe, who has been an integral member of the charity since its inception in 2015, he was attempting to complete the feat for the first time.
The trio got off to an early start, meeting at the New York Public Library at 5.45am to embark on an unusually long 3 hour coach journey to the start line in Staten Island. After a rousing rendition of Star Spangled Banner they were off.
The weather on the day was forgettable, although the cloudy skies and intermittent rain wasn’t enough to deter the 52,000 runners and over 1 million spectators lining the streets, along with live bands and DJ’s adding to an incredible carnival like atmosphere.
A huge thanks to the support team who cheered the guys along with notably mentions to Tom Sheppard who travelled over from England and Lucy Baumgartner who provided support both on the day and throughout.
All three runners performed admirably on the day, with a special call out to Andrew Pugh who broke his personal best time on a notoriously hilly course by crossing the finishing line at 3 hours and 29 minutes. Great job Andrew!
Most importantly the team raised over £6,000 which will prove to be invaluable in helping us to continue to raise awareness of the lack of diversity of those signed up to stem cell donor register and carry out donor drives in both the UK and US.
The whole event has been such a great success that we’ve applied for 5 spaces for the 2018 event. Fingers crossed that our application is successful and if you are interested in running on behalf of the charity and raising funds please get in touch with Joe: joe.bates@raceagainstbloodcancer.com
