Take on our Swabtember Challenge!

Swabtember Challenge returns!

Following its successful launch in 2022, our Swabtember Challenge returns to mark Blood Cancer Awareness Month 2023.

Take on a life-saving challenge

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 1,093 miles! Along the way you will meet transplant recipients, donors and pioneers of blood stem cell transplants.

Bigger and better

Last year, over 150 of you joined the challenge, covering a whooping 28,826 miles along a 635-mile route! Together you raised nearly £6,000, enough to fund the registrations of 150 potential lifesavers.

Our top fundraising team, Swabbed N Shaved, raised nearly £1,000 and covered over 19,000 miles. Arun, from the Swabbed N Shaved team, managed to cycle an astonishing 2,300 miles towards their total.

Heaton Runners put their regular training runs to good use, totting up the miles together and raising nearly £500 in the process. Caroline, one of the Heaton Runners, said, "It was a great event! It really helped to spread awareness and quite a few of our members signed up as donors. We will definitely be taking part again this year!"

But don’t worry if you’re not an avid runner or cyclist. All activities can contribute to your total; whether you are someone that enjoys a leisurely stroll, gets around using a wheelchair, scoots to work, roller skates with your kids or goes for a swim at the weekend.

This year we’re challenging you to go further (nearly double the distance) and go bigger with your fundraising.

How to join the challenge

Entry to the challenge is £10 and you have all of September to complete your journey. All participants will receive a virtual DKMS medal and social media shareables throughout the challenge; the first 100 people to raise more than £100 will receive a DKMS t-shirt.

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 travelled manually. Watch as you travel along the map, around Europe and ultimately end your journey at the DKMS Life Science Labs in Dresden, Germany.

One thousand and ninety-three 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.

This challenge is open to all ages and abilities.