DKMS Summer Challenge has launched!

DKMS Summer Challenge launched!

Throughout June, we’re challenging you to virtually travel 694 miles across Europe and help give more people with blood cancer a second chance of life! Join together with your friends, family, colleagues, teammates or neighbours to make the journey together.

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. This summer 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 694 miles! Along the way you will meet transplant recipients, donors and pioneers of blood stem cell transplants.

New and improved

You may remember our Swabtember challenges from 2022 and 2023. We’ve revamped this successful event to get even more of you involved.

Over the last two years, over 200 of you have joined the challenge, covering over 30,000 miles! Together you’ve raised nearly £7,500, enough to fund the registrations of 187 potential lifesavers.

Heaton Runners put their regular training runs to good use both years, totting up the miles together and raising £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. 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.

How to join the challenge

Entry to the challenge is £6 and you have all of June to complete your journey.

All participants will receive a DKMS t-shirt to wear on their journey.

Raise £50 or more to receive a medal, and raise an amazing £150 for an exclusive DKMS water bottle.

Tracking your journey

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.

More information

Download your challenge information pack here

Don’t hesitate to pop up us a message on fundraising@dkms.org.uk if you have any questions.

This challenge is open to all ages and abilities.