Help save lives with the Sunflower Fund
JOBURG – The foundation raises funds for patients fighting blood diseases like leukemia to receive life-saving stem cell transplant. The public has been urged to purchase a Tube of Hope (Tope) – an accessory that can be worn as a scarf or bandana, from 1 August.
Alarming new figures show that an increasing number of people are being diagnosed with cancer around the world, just last year alone a special report by Discovery Health found that under 1.8 million new cases of blood cancer were recorded in 2018.
According to the report, cancer causes more deaths in South Africa than HIV/Aids, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. Traci Sassenberg marketing head at Sunflower Fund said they want to use Bone Marrow Stem Cell Donation and Leukaemia Awareness Month from August to October, as a reminder to South Africans that they actually can do something to change these statistics.
The same report by Discovery Health found that leukaemia is the number one cancer by cost at a staggering R281 455 per case on average. Sunflower Fund started Sunflower Day 16 years ago to get the public involved in the fight against blood diseases like leukaemia. The campaign aims to raise funds for the recruitment of blood stem cell donors to give the hope of a cure to patients diagnosed with life-threatening blood diseases who need a life-saving stem cell transplant.
Sunflower Day is marked on 20 September, merchandise of Tube of Hope (Tope) –a multi-purpose accessory which can be worn as a scarf or wristband – will be sold at Pick n Pay stores, selected independent pharmacies and online on the Zando website from 1 August, costing R30.
The colour of the Tope comes in six colours, blue represents confidence, pink – courageous, yellow– optimistic, purple – selfless, green – strong and orange– brave.
Kim Webster, head of communications at the Sunflower Fund said, “Hope tags are a series of hashtags that will be used throughout the campaign as labels that unite and empower us rather than the divisive labels that society has become accustomed to.”
It does it stop there, “[Sunflower fund] is encouraging individuals between 18 and 45 years, with a consistent weight of more than 50kgs and a BMI of less than 40 to contact us and register as donors,” Webster added.
For more details, visit the Sunflower Fund website or contact 0800 12 10 82.
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