Meet our ambassador
We are thrilled to have a prominent and esteemed Aussie football icon as our Ambassador!
Archie Thompson - Former Socceroos player and Australian football royalty
Archie Thompson
It truly is a privilege to have Australian football royalty on our side to help us grow and diversify the blood stem cell donor registry and save the lives of people with blood cancer!
Archie Thompson was an elite Australian footballer and former Socceroos player who played over 50 times for the Australian National team. He was also in the squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the 2001 and 2005 FIFA Confederations Cups, the 2007 AFC Asian Cup, the 2008 Summer Olympics and the successful 2004 OFC Nations Cup.
He also won 3 championships and 2 Victory Medals during his time with Melbourne Victory and currently holds the world record for his 13 goals scored in a single international match!
Now a media personality, Archie is a commentator for the A-League Coverage on Network 10 and Paramount+ and was also a contestant in the 2021 season of Celebrity Masterchef Australia!
“Football is a global sport. It speaks all languages. Melbourne Victory celebrates the diversity and proud multiculturalism of our community”
Archie Thompson has a proud mixed heritage, born to a New Zealand father of Maori descent and a mother of Papua New Guinean descent. He spent most of his career playing football in the A-League and was a marquee player for Melbourne Victory.
Football’s celebration of diversity and Archie’s fan base make him the perfect Ambassador to help us with our mission to reach young multicultural Australians. We are excited and honoured to be working with him so we can find more matches for patients in need and save more lives!
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When football fan Matt was diagnosed with Leukaemia and began searching for his stem cell match, he and his sister Tahlee reached out to Archie via social media to help spread the message. Matt was a huge fan of Archie and Melbourne Victory.
Archie quickly shared the UR the Cure & Strength to Give information and encouraged his fans to join the stem cell registry, which saw an influx of people ordering their cheek swab kits to join!
Matt struggled to find his stem cell match due to his Maltese heritage. One of his last messages on social media was to encourage people to join the donor registry. He was so dedicated to raising awareness that even when he knew it was too late to help himself, he wanted to make sure that no one else had to endure what he had to. Sadly Matt passed away leaving behind his young family but his legacy continues. He once described Archie as a “genuine legend” for sharing the information on social media and he was right. Archie is a legend, and having him as an Ambassador continues Matt’s legacy to help other patients find their lifesaving match.
#ForMatt
Tahlee continues her brother Matt’s legacy, seen here advocating at the front of parliament house for governments to fund cheek swab testing in Australia