Events
We run, support and facilitate a variety of events and activities all around Australia to educate people about the blood stem cell registry to help achieve our goal of increasing and diversifying the number of people on the donor registry. To widen our reach, we work with volunteers all around the country to help run the activities and have been lucky enough to work with some incredible and passionate people. If you’d like to get involved to help us with our mission you can fill in this webform with your details and we’ll get in touch. We work with you closely and give you everything you need to run your activity. Whether it’s workplace education, education and donor drives events at sporting clubs or anywhere else in the community (religious institutions, schools, universities etc), running an information stall at an event, advocacy work or fundraising, there are many different ways you can help us with our mission!
Below are some of the events we have run over the years. For updates about upcoming events follow us on Facebook and Instagram
Hannah & Sophie’s Sydney Marathon Fundraiser
September 2023 - In the lead up to World Marrow Donor Day, Sophie and Hannah are running the Sydney Marathon to raise funds for UR the Cure and to help raise awareness on the need for Australian governments to properly fund the cheek swab testing program!
Sonny & Ben’s Great North Walk Fundraiser
October 2022 - Sonny and Ben took on a huge challenge of running the 250km Great North Walk track (from Newcastle to Sydney) and raised over $30,000 for UR the Cure! They did this in memory of their friend Harrison who had Aplastic Anaemia (a rare disorder in which the bone marrow fails to produce enough blood cells) and Paroxysmal Nocturnal Haemoglobinuria (PNH). A huge thank you to the boys and all the family and friends who rallied around them. Rest in peace Harry.
The 21st 50
The “21st 50” is the second phase of the The 20-50 campaign to celebrate reaching a huge milestone of 5,000 signatures on the petition to bring back cheek swab testing into Australia! See the advocacy page to learn more or download this fact sheet.
Where: Australia-wide
When: July 2022
What: Biff is running another 50km to hand deliver the petition in Victoria to Minister Ged Kearney (Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) and Minister Mary-Anne Thomas (Minister for Health Victoria). We also have volunteers all around the country doing the same with the State Health Ministers and Federal Health Minister Mark Butler. All of our wonderful volunteers who will be delivering the petition have been personally impacted and connected to the cause. Read more below about each of them.
How to support: You can continue to sign the petition and spread the word on social media of what we are doing! If you have any contacts of influential people or contacts in the media to help us shed a spotlight on what we are doing please email info@urthecure.com.au
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Damien is delivering the petition to the Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath. Damien’s story is quite incredible, he has been dubbed “the bionic man”! Damien is in the smaller percentage of people who find a stem cell match within the family. Only 30% of patients find their match with a family member and the other 70% rely on finding their match with someone who has registered to be a potential stem cell donor on the Australian or world-wide donor registries. In 2011 Damien had his stem cell transplant using his brother’s donated stem cells. He developed Graft vs Host Disease which basically means the donor cells detect Damien’s body as foreign and start attacking his organs, and subsequently Damien had to go on to have a double lung transplant and double hip replacement. He has since founded the Chimera Legacy Foundation which does amazing work and he continues to work on his own health and fitness with his eyes set on competing in the Transplant Games. You can read more about his amazing story here.
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Diana is delivering the petition to the Western Australian Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson. Diana’s son struggled to find a stem cell match due to his culturally diverse background. Patients with diverse cultural and indigenous backgrounds often struggle to find a match as these groups are under-represented on the donor registries (ie – Italian, Asian, Middle Eastern etc). Her family started “Jordan’s Fight Club”, a campaign to educate the public about the bone marrow registry. This is a huge burden for a family going through such an ordeal, it should be the responsibility of the ABMDR and Strength to Give to proactively promote the service, however they’ve been unable to do so due to funding constraints.
Their search luckily came at a time when the Strength to Give pilot program was being run which meant they were able to run over 11 successful donor drives using cheek swabs and recruit over 1000 people from these under-represented groups onto the donor registry! Being able to easily target people from the right demographic groups is one of the many benefits of having cheek swabs.
Unfortunately, Jordan never found his match and had no choice but to undergo a riskier “half matched” transplant using his sisters stem cells. Thankfully Jordan was very lucky to make it through the transplant and is currently in remission and slowly regaining back his health.
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Javeria is delivering the petition to the New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard. Javeria’s 2 sons were both born with immunodeficiencies and needed a stem cell transplant. Stem cell transplants can cure not only blood cancer but a range of different blood disorders and immunodeficiencies. Due to their Pakistani background it was very difficult to find a match. Sadly after a long search and no match, one of her sons passed away at only 15 months old. Javeria wasted no time with her second son, rather than searching for a match he underwent a riskier “half matched” transplant using his fathers donated stem cells. It has been a long road to recovery for the family, having to live in isolation for years. Javeria has done a lot of advocacy work for the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry and the Immune Deficiencies Foundation Australia.
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Sophie is delivering the petition to the South Australian Health Minister Chris Picton and the Federal Health Minister Mark Butler. Sophie was diagnosed with Leukaemia when she was 29 years old. She was able to find a match on the donor registry and underwent a transplant which saved her life. She has been a big advocate for the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry and the Strength to Give cheek swab program. She is the brilliant person who started the change.org petition which has reached over 5,000 signatures, so it’s very fitting that Sophie is the one to deliver the petition to the Federal Health Minister! You can read more about Sophie here
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Biff is the champion that underwent #The2050 challenge to help raise awareness on the need for cheek swab testing in Australia. He ran 50km a day for 20 days to represent the 50 Australians diagnosed with blood cancer every day and the 20,000 people we need to join the stem cell donor registry every year. Matt’s Mum was able to find a match and have a stem cell transplant. He was inspired to join the donor registry himself but was surprised at how difficult it was. He also learnt that his Mum had a higher chance of finding a match because of her Anglo-Saxon background and thought that there had to be a better way to increase the numbers and diversity of people joining the Australian donor registry. He has been a huge advocate in raising awareness on this important issue.
The 20-50 Event
Matt “Biff” Thompson is undertaking an enormous feat of running 50km per day for 20 days!
Why The 20-50? 50 people per day are diagnosed with blood cancer in Australia and Australia needs 20,000 people per year to join the stem cell donor registry to meet demand. See the advocacy page to learn more or download this fact sheet.
Where: Melbourne with the finish party happening at Biff’s Athletic’s club in Willinda Park (Beatrix St, Greensborough VIC 3088 - located at the end of Nell Street). Details to come, all are welcome
When: 11th March - 28th April 2022
What: Biff is running 50km per day for 20 days to raise awareness on blood stem cell donation and to bring back the lifesaving cheek swab testing to Australia. Follow him on Instagram @Biffrunner
How to support: Sign the petition to bring back cheek swabs and download a letter to email the Federal Health Minister and your State Health Minister about this important issue
Get involved: We invite you to join Biff no matter where you are in Australia! Modify the kms and day to suit your fitness ability, for example walk or run 5km per day for 2 days. Then simply :
Ask your family and friends to support you to sign the petition and email a letter to the Health Minister
Mention @urthecure and @biffrunner and #The2050 on social media! We can’t wait to see your photos!
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One of our supporters Matt, also lovingly known as “Biff” has driven the initiative of “The 20-50”! He is helping us raise awareness on stem cell donation and the need to bring back cheek swab testing in Australia. Biff is running 50km per day for 20 days to raise awareness on stem cell donation and in honour of his Mum who is alive today because of her stem cell donor!
Why the numbers 20-50? 50 people per day are diagnosed with blood cancer in Australia. Australia needs 20,000 people per year to join the stem cell donor registry, this is so patients with blood cancer and other blood disease who require a stem cell transplant can find their lifesaving stem cell match, this is often their only chance for a cure.
Unfortunately Australia’s donor pool is shrinking and we need the government to fund cheek swab testing to make it easier for people to join & save more lives! To learn more visit the Advocacy page.
Biff, we wish you the best of luck as you embark on this incredible challenge!A note from Biff:
We can do better for people suffering with blood cancer and other diseases who require a bone marrow transplant. Currently the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (AMBDR) is shrinking, and we are the only registry in the developed world that is.
We require 20,000 donors to sign up every year to meet demand in Australia, we currently have around 6,000 people join. Our shrinking donor registry has made us more reliant on overseas donors which has complications that have been heightened by the Pandemic.
I learned about this when I tried to join to do my part after my family was affected by Leukemia. Finding out how to and then becoming a donor was not the easiest process.
These issues mean we have a small domestic pool of donors. This is particularly problematic for people of diverse ethnic backgrounds and indigenous Australians.
Waiting for a donor can be a rollercoaster ride as I saw through family experience. Donors can be found and then not an option due to many reasons. With most donors based overseas this adds complexity and confusion. The donor that ended up giving in my family's case was from the USA and we will be forever grateful to them.
The good news is that there is a fix for this. Cheek Swabs! Through the AMBDR Strength to Give campaign.
Cheek swabs are a cheaper, easier, and less invasive test to allow donors to easily join the AMBDR.
Cheek swabs are currently awaiting approval by multiple levels of Government in Australia. They have been waiting on approval for many years!
To raise awareness for this and get Cheek Swabs approved I will be undertaking a challenge I have dubbed the 20 50.
In Australia we require 20,000 donors per year to meet our requirements. Every day 50 people are diagnosed with blood cancer these people will often require a bone marrow transplant.
So I will be doing 20 x 50km runs. As we need 20k for the 50 per day.
I will be running from March 11 to 31 finishing at Willinda Park in Greensborough home of my athletics club.
I invite anyone who wants to run with me to join please send me a message @biffrunner and we can arrange for this to happen (modified kms and days are welcome to suit different fitness levels).
To raise awareness and put pressure on Governments I request people to give some of their time, I want your 20 mins more than your $20 to send letters, download the letter templates here
Thanks to everyone for your support.
- Matt “Biff” Thompson
Education with the Indian Sikh community in Perth
May 2021 - In partnership with Healing International and the Australian Indian Medical Association of Western Australia, we ran an information stall at the Diwali Festival and later an educational presentation with the Indian Sikh community in Perth. The group had the opportunity to join via cheek swabs one last time before the program was paused again due to government funding constraints. Events like these and the donor drives listed below were possible because of cheek swab testing and were run during the cheek swab pilot program with our partners at Strength to Give and the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry.
Manly Surf Lifesaving Club “Sporty Stem Cells” Donor Drive
November 2020 - Over 200 people joined the stem cell donor registry through a donor drive event held at the Manly Lifesaving club! We worked closely with volunteer Kate to support and facilitate the event in support of a much-loved member of the Northern Beaches community. Many of the board riders clubs got behind the event and the Manly Surf School.
Egyptian Orthodox Community Donor Drives in Sydney
September 2020 - A number of donor drives were held with the Egyptian Orthodox community in Sydney which added much needed people from this cultural background onto the donor registry. Only 0.6% of people on the Australian donor registry have Middle Eastern background. We worked closely with Cherrie to support and facilitate donor drives that resulted in over 300 people from the community joining the registry. Cherrie did an amazing job and it was all in support of her sister who was struggling to find her stem cell match. Most often its patients with a culturally diverse or indigenous background that struggle to find their match because these groups are under represented on the donor registry.
“Swab to Save” donor drive at Telstra Store Waurn Ponds
The staff at Telstra Store Waurn Ponds got involved in a “Swab to Save” donor drive event with many completing a cheek swab before starting their day at work! The company Stratel which operates the Telstra Stores in Geelong ran a newsletter article about stem cell donation and the staff had the opportunity to learn about what’s involved in donating stem cells before completing their swab!
Perth Baseball Club “Sporty Stem Cells” Donor Drive
February 2020 - UR the Cure supported a donor drive at the Perth Baseball Club, working with volunteer Kate who did a great job getting the boys to join the donor registry by completing a cheek swab. Kate’s son Hunter was in need of a stem cell match and she did an amazing job coordinating the drive whilst dealing with Hunter’s health challenges.
Geelong Cricket Association “Sporty Stem Cells” Donor Drive
February 2020 - The Alexander Thomson Vikings cricket club ran a donor drive and many of the boys completed a cheek swab at their club to join the stem cell registry! UR the Cure ran an education presentation after training one week and the following week the boys who wanted to join came together and completed their swabs. Well done to these Viking Warriors!
Sacred Heart College Education
October 2019 - Our founder Pamela presented to the Year 12 students at Sacred Heart College, educating the girls about stem cell donation. In support of UR the Cure, the students chose a Superhero theme for their final school day celebrations, dressing up and raising funds; many ordered their cheek swab kit to join the donor registry too!
Superhero Stem Cell Day at the Alfred Hospital
November 2019 - A big thanks to the team at Ward 7 East from the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne for running a Superhero Stem Cell day, raising awareness and support for stem cell donation! They dressed up in Superhero theme and shared a lovely morning tea whilst Pamela our founder gave a short talk. The event was shared through hospital internal communications and social media and resulted with many of the staff ordering their cheek swab kit to join the donor registry!
Chuckles for Charity Fundraiser Comedy Night
November 2019 - Thanks to “Locally Grown Funnies” who put on a fantastic night full of laughs (and a few shocked faces)! Special thanks to comedian Luke Massey who helped pull the event together and sponsors at Telstra Store Waurn Ponds, Ray White Highton, St Bernard’s Parish and Clairvaux Catholic school. We raised $2220 from the evening and even managed to “swab” a couple of young men who joined the donor registry!
Deakin University U Belong Event
September 2019 - We ran a couple of information stalls at Deakin University’s U Belong event which is all about celeberating diversity and inclusiveness! It was lots of fun with free food, music, games, giveaways and speed friending! We had a great time chatting to the students about stem cell donation and the importance of diversifying Australia’s stem cell donor registry. We had a great response with many of the students registering their interest to join via cheek swabs!
Transport Accident Commission (TAC) Workplace Education
July 2017 - The TAC ran a morning tea where staff dressed up in “Superhero” theme in support of a colleague who was having a stem cell transplant! We stopped during morning tea to educate the staff about stem cell donation and were involved in a Q&A session.
Scott No Cancer Fundraiser
March 2015 - Scott and his family are raising money to afford a special cancer drug. Scott is having a bone marrow transplant (his sister was a match) and the family are keen to promote awareness about the bone marrow registry. Ur the Cure will be there on the night to provide information and will also be doing a short talk explaining the importance of joining the registry.
Where: The Pier, Geelong Waterfront
When: 27th March 2015
Time: 7pm til late
What: A cocktail event including finger food & a fun night out with a celebrity guest panel of football players, auctions, raffles, live entertainment & more. Ur the Cure will also be presenting a short talk with a stall providing information
Tickets: $75 per head, purchase at http://www.trybooking.com/GXOD
Post- event note: An extremely successful night with $170,000 raised for Scott & his family. Here is a video summary of the night https://youtu.be/86xruHzpxrU
Middle Eastern Community “Ready to Cure” Session
Do you want a simple and easy way to join the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR)? Join us at an exciting and fun Ready to Cure Session with the ABMDR. Must be aged 18-45.
The sessions are a great community event where we can come together and support one another to help others in our community.
Click here if you wish to host your own cure session
Where: St George's Orthodox Church, 28 Shaftesbury Parade Thornbury 3071 (all religions are welcome)
When: Tuesday 18th November 2014
Time: 4pm to 7:30pm
What: Food & entertainment + getting a small sample of your blood taken by a nurse to join the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (must be aged 18-45)
Click here to register and book your appointment Must be aged 18 - 45 to join the registry. Appointments will run for approximately 15 minutes
