Thank you so much to the Allscott Heath FC U9s team for raising money for our charity at their bag pack fundraiser at Asda in Donnington, Telford last Saturday. They raised an impressive £420.45 for Race Against Blood Cancer which will enable us to continue our work saving the lives of people with blood cancer.
We are so proud of the whole team of little lifesavers – and their siblings – for taking on this momentous challenge and giving up their time to support the charity Also thank you to Marcus, Morgan, Simra and Khalis for helping out too!
We’d also like to say a big thank you to ASDA Donnington for having us and to our community engagement manager Gemma Elsmore for co-ordinating the event.
Gemma, who’s been supporting Race Against Blood Cancer for a little over a year took some time out of her busy schedule to be interviewed by Emma Brown, our Social Media manager about how she first came in contact with the charity
“I first became a volunteer for Race Against Blood Cancer in March 2017, after learning that a friend’s son was in need of a blood stem cell transplant. This emotionally touched my heart and I wanted to offer my support in a way that I could try and really make a difference. I held my first donor drive in aid of the Match4Khaleel campaign, which was a huge success. We were able to sign up 57 potential donors to the stem cell register within 2 hours. This inspired me to want to help others who are in a similar position to Khaleel.
In May 2017 a job was advertised for a Community Engagement Officer in the West Midlands and I knew that this was something that I would love to do, so I applied for the position. I was delighted when I was offered the job at Race Against Blood Cancer because this meant that I could put my all into raising awareness of blood cancer and signing people up.
Over the past 10 months myself and my team of volunteers have signed up over 660 potential blood stem cell donors. I would really love for us to reach a target of 1000 by the end of August 2018 and to continue to encourage people from all different ethnic backgrounds to sign up because you never know when it could affect somebody you love.”
Gemma Elsmore – Community Engagement Officer.
Gemma Elsmore – Community Engagement Officer at Race Against Blood Cancer
Last Saturday the Race Against Blood Cancer team hosted another donor drive at the popular event Shropshire Kids Festival 2018 at the Telford International Centre.
The event was full of busy families getting involved in all of the activities on offer, and the team still managed to sign up an impressive 57 blood stem cell donors amongst the madness! We’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who visited the stand and took an interest in the charity, and a special thanks to those who registered!
New volunteers signing up as a stem cell donors at the festival in Shropshire
We’d also like to show our appreciation to the organisers Shropshire Festivals and our amazing team Gemma Elsmore, Sarah Elsmore, Beth Elsmore and Jodie Thompson for spending all day on their feet, encouraging the crowd and signing up new potential donors who could help save the life of someone with blood cancer!
If you would like help with organising a donor drive in your place of work, please contact our community engagement team:
