Welcome to the DT38 December newsletter, Channel38.
In this Christmassy edition Tracy Tombides, our Co-Founder reflects on the past twelve months and on DT38’s achievements and successes.
DT38 raises awareness of testicular cancer across communities and schools in the UK, Australia and further afield in memory of Dylan Tombides.
2023 – With a Little Help from Our Friends
I believe that the word “togetherness” really defines 2023 for DT38.
Taking a bit of time out at the end of a jam-packed twelve months, I continue to feel truly humbled by the amount of support given to our charity and the great strides we have made.
In the wider world we are going through a difficult period which seems to be characterized by division and so the amount of love and support we continue to share with each other through organisations like DT38 is more important than ever.
DT38 brings people together to share a common message, to help the lives of others and to celebrate life in the purest sense.
Helping others and celebrating life are two of my son Dylan’s greatest gifts and I am so proud that his spirit continues to influence our lives in this way.
It is because of the person Dylan was on while on Earth, that our charity continues to grow so beautifully.
He was an incredibly talented young footballer and a beautiful person, every single week I am reminded of how he touched peoples’ lives.
As does DT38, which was launched nine years ago in Dylan’s honour.
One of our greatest achievements is that we continue to receive messages from men across the world who have taken their health into their own hands because of Dylan’s story.
Every time we get together for an event, we celebrate life and remind ourselves of the importance of looking after ourselves and others through awareness of testicular cancer – the most common form of the disease among young men in the world.
We have been very busy in 2023 sharing this message and we continue to reach more people than ever before.
This year we opened up the opportunity for members of the public, who want to make a difference, to become Ambassadors of DT38 and we have been very encouraged by the response.
We welcomed TWELVE new DT38 Ambassadors to our team with more yet to be announced.
These people, along with the dozens of other Ambassadors and helpers are at the heart of our charity, helping us fundraise, share our messages and support our events.
Our Check 1-Two Campaign – which was launched in 2020 – encourages men and boys to check themselves down under on the first day of every month.
And a big thanks to Alan Curbishley, Zac Williams, Terry Hayes, Kieran Bywater, Will Aimson, Paul Bridger, Rob Pritchard, Kevin Nolan, Carlton Cole, and Jonathan Harman, who stepped up by taking part in videos in 2023 to help us promote Check 1-Two.
The campaign received another huge boost this year with the launch of our DT38 E-Calendar.
It offers automatic reminders to your smart phone, tablet or PC calendar on self-checking and all of the big DT38 events.
We are continually searching for ways of reaching even more people with important information about testicular cancer and I am keen to embrace technology to support us in that.
This time last year I was extremely excited about diving into the New Year, but it was a tragic start to January.
We said goodbye to West Ham United FC Joint-Chairman David Gold and I was very keen to pay tribute at the time.
“I was saddened to hear of the Passing of David Gold and my thoughts turned to the unwavering support that the family received from him, David Sullivan and Karren Brady when Dylan was first diagnosed with testicular cancer.
“I’ll never forget that arm around me as I watched Dylan’s shirt being retired at Upton Park on 19 April 2014.
“He had no idea of his strength and how he held me together that day. Always in my heart.”
But there was also a lot to be positive about as 2023 began to build.
On February 28th we marked our eighth anniversary as a charity, two weeks before a brilliant DT38 Awareness Day 2023 at London Stadium.
While in April Perth Glory paid tribute by dedicating an A-League fixture to DT38 in Dylan’s memory, followed in May by the first of two fixtures from two of Dylan’s former clubs Stirling Macedonia and Perth SC.
And we do not, for a second, under-estimate the size of the opportunities afforded to us by our Premier League and A-League partner clubs as well as those in the NPLWA.
We are extremely grateful.
In July this year, for the first time, newly crowned UECL champions (hooray!) West Ham United FC and Perth Glory FC joined forces to get behind DT38 and the experience was incredible.
The Hammers pre-season tour of Perth was just awesome and it has helped us reach so many more people than ever before as well as raising important funds through the auction of the match day shirts.
Taylor Tombides travelled with the Hammers first team for the trip and was humbled to see how warmly his brother is remembered and how much his life is still touching people all these years later.
The coming together of claret, blue and purple for a fantastic festival of football, which placed Dylan’s legacy at the centre of it will, live long in my memory.
In August we were busy fundraising again at the annual DT38 UK Golf Day with the help of Terry Moncur, Langdon Hills Golf & Country Club and a whole host of famous football icons.
Whilst in November we welcomed a wonderful audience to London’s York Hall for Awareness Below the Belt – the fifth yearly White Collar Boxing event we have benefited from in partnership with Dom Shepherd, Tony Liston and Peacock Gym.
There have been so many fantastic fundraising activities across the year including marathon runners, celebrity events, football fan events, tournaments, auctions, raffles and so much more.
If I had the space to mention every single one of you here I would, but please know that I am so very grateful to each and every one of you.
And of course, we were sure to pay our gratitude to you all in Channel38 newsletters across the year.
2024 marks the 10th anniversary of the passing of my son Dylan and there will be a series of very special events for this as well a very exciting programme of events (subject to change and addition). Other official events will be added.
- February – DT38 Awareness Day Australia 2023 – HBF Park
- April – DT38 Awareness Day 2023 at London Stadium
- April – 10th anniversary of Dylan Tombides’ Passing – Special Event
- April or May – DT38 Australia Golf Day – venue TBC
- July – London 10k run
- August – DT38 UK Golf Day at Langdon Hills Golf Club, Essex
- November – DT38 “Awareness Below the Belt” White Collar Boxing at York Hall, Bethnal Green, London
For the latest details on all of these events follow our social media, check back on future editions of our newsletter Channel38 and of course, you can subscribe to our new FREE E-Calendar at dt38.org
I want to finish by saying how incredibly proud of how far DT38 has come.
Some of the most important moments for me are when men reach out to us to share their own experiences with testicular cancer.
They tell us that they were inspired to take action because of Dylan’s story.
That continues to be the core mission of DT38 and for all the men that we do we hear from, there will no doubt be many more who haven’t yet told their story for a variety of reasons, but whom we’ve be able to influence.
It is because of your support that we’re able to help these people and we’re forever grateful.
Next year is going to be a very big one for our charity and I’m really looking forward to working with so many of you.
Together we help save men’s and boy’s lives by educating them about the risks of testicular cancer.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
With love,
Tracy Tombides x
Many Happy Returns
We have a fantastic five festive birthdays in December for Ambassadors of DT38.
Former West Ham United FC scout Mike Leigh celebrated a birthday on December 2nd and on the 5th TV and radio presenter Adrian Barich turned 60.
On December 12th former Premier League footballer and Socceroo Craig Moore celebrated his 48th birthday, while four days later great friend of Dylan Tombides’ Elliot Lee, now an AFC Wrexham player, was 29.
DT38 Australia Director Chris De Lima marked his 61st birthday on December 29th.
Many Happy Returns one and all!
Sharing the Love
We are so grateful to more than 35,000 people who follow and support us on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
Every month we receive so many shares, Retweets, likes and tags and we’re so grateful for each and every one of them, thank you.
And that brings to end this edition but we’ll be back with the next edition of Channel38 in January.
If you have helped DT38 in some way in recent times, please be sure to let us know so we can include it in one of our future newsletters. Contact tracylee@dt38.co.uk