Welcome to the DT38 December Newsletter, Channel38.
This is where we bring together all the very latest developments, events and support stories at DT38.
It’s also a chance for us to share important information about the work we do to raise awareness of testicular cancer around schools and in communities as well as publicly offering our thanks to the many people who support us in our endeavours.
2020 – A Tough Year, Sprinkled with So Much Love and Kindness
As ever I am so immensely proud of everyone who supports DT38 and our unwavering mission to raise awareness of testicular cancer and help save men and boy’s lives.
I cannot pretend, of course, that 2020 has been anything other than extremely difficult for our charity.
In February we marked our 5th year and we had planned to upscale our activities across the period as part of our plan to reach more people than ever with our crucial messages.
But the COVID-19 pandemic has had such a terrible impact on so many peoples’ lives and my heart goes out to everyone who has lost a loved one to this terrible disease.
We should all be extremely proud of our health workers who have been, and continue to be, absolute heroes.
And I would also like to pay tribute to all of the kind-hearted, generous people who have given their time and money into supporting DT38 in a year when we were forced to cancel all of our physical fundraising events.
We were delighted to welcome some new DT38 Ambassadors this year including Matilda’s skipper Sam Kerr and former football stars John Aloisi and Kevin Muscat who joined us Down Under to help us raise awareness.
To underline our 5th year we launched the Check 1-Two Campaign in February to encourage males to check their testicles every month – a crucial and potentially live saving message.
We’re extremely grateful to Mile Jedinak, Sam Kerr, John Aloisi, Scott Jamieson, Tony Cottee, Elliot Lee, Mark Ward, Kevin Muscat, Simon Hill and Josh Wilkins who took their time to make videos for us to help share this message.
Also at that time we announced we had teamed up with Check ‘Em Lads, a testicular cancer awareness group which has allowed us to shared some great resources about the disease with our audience.
In April this year we launched the 3.80 Funding Appeal in response to Coronavirus in an effort to keep us afloat and to date we have raised more than £4,000 in total.
Within this our Communications Manager Iain Johnson took on a challenge to recite a Shakespeare monologue in less than 26 seconds as part of the UK’s national 2.6 Challenge & he raised £372.
The 3.80 Funding Appeal was supported online by what would have been the 5thAnnual DT38 Awareness Day around the West Ham United versus Burnley FC Premier League match which helped attract attention to our Appeal.
In July DT38 Board Member and, ironically, son of winemakers John Bondi ditched the booze for a month and thanks to his generous supporters raised a whopping $3,500 (AUD) for our cause.
A month later we were thrilled to be one of the charities to benefit from #Sokkahaid, a two day fundraising broadcast from Australia’s finest football podcasts.
It was also announced in September that UK football podcast We Are West Ham would be supporting DT38 across the 20/21 Premier League season through a charity bets initiative supported by online bookmaker Betway.
Last month a group of magnificent men – led by DT38 Ambassador David Davutovic – grew moustaches as part of our ‘Grow a Mo for a Bro’ Movember 2020 campaign and we still adding up the donations from this wonderful initiative.
And earlier this month we raised £450 at the first ever DT38 Christmas Auction with great support from West Ham United and DT38 Board Member and TV star Nicole Sealey who donation items in support of us.
So, of course the last 12 months has been extremely challenging, but I’ve always found that the DT38 team and our supporters always rise to the challenge and I’m extremely grateful for that.
Dylan rose to so many difficult challenges in this life and I am touched that we continue to honour his memory in this way and help to save other men and boys’ lives.
I am hoping – like so many other people – that we will be able to return to some form of normality in 2021 and we’ve scheduled in several great events including golf days and our White Collar Boxing event in November.
But most of all, of course, I hope that you and your loved ones stay safe at this very difficult time.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
With love,
Tracy Tombides x
Many Happy Returns
We have a collection of festive birthdays in December for Ambassadors of DT38.
Former West Ham United scout Mike Leigh celebrated his big day on December 1stand on the 5th Channel 7 sports presenter Adrian Barich was 57.
On December 12th ex-Premier League player and Socceroo Craig Moore turned 45, while on the 16th great friend of Dylan and Luton Town FC forward Elliot Lee was 26 years old.
Many Happy Returns guys!
Picture of the Month
So, if you didn’t know, we’re lucky enough to receive so many wonderful pictures of people across the world each month showing their support for DT38 and we then pick our “Picture of the Month”, just for fun.
This fabulous festive month we decided the give the accolade to DT38 supporter Gary Carson.
Lovely Gary gives us a wonderful opportunity to create a caption for this picture in his classic DT38 tee.
Perhaps it’s too chilly to go out for a run or he’s considering leaving the house for the first time in a while, you decide!
Sharing the Love
We are so grateful to more than 35,000 people who follow and support us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram 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.org or connect with us on Twitter Facebook or Instagram