Campaign

Blood Cancer Awareness Month 2022: Take on our Swabtember challenge!

Three DKMS staff setting off on the Swabtember challenge carrying a giant swab


Closing date extension
To allow for a period of mourning following the Queen's passing, we will be extending the deadline for completing the challenge until 11 October 2022

Take on a lifesaving journey

Each time we register a new donor, the swabs they give us are analysed for a match to a waiting patient by our state-of-the art laboratory in Dresden, Germany.

Our donors’ swabs need to get to Dresden, In September, we need you and your team to get them there, whether you cycle, run, walk, swim, roll, skate, scoot or anything else!

You can embark on the very same journey that each and every potentially lifesaving swab kit takes. That’s a distance of 635 miles; the same number of children are diagnosed with blood cancer every year in the UK.

How to join the challenge

You have all of September to complete your journey. Entry to the challenge is £10. All participants will receive a DKMS medal, and the first 100 people to raise more than £100 will receive a DKMS snood.

You won’t face any travel chaos. You can do this all from your own home, or wherever you like to be active! Simply hook up your Strava to your fundraising page OR log your distance traveled manually. Watch as you travel along the map, around Europe and ultimately end your journey at the DKMS Life Science Labs in Dresden, Germany.

Six hundred and thirty five miles is a long way! Join together with your friends, family, colleagues, teammates or neighbours, or join one of the DKMS teams, to make the journey together. If you really fancy a challenge, you can cover the distance yourself!

Help us find more donors
Everyone who needs a blood stem cell transplant must find their potential donor. Can you help?