Swab from your sofa

Spread Love Hope Strength at this challenging time

Our lives have all changed dramatically over the past few weeks, but during these unprecedented times, you can still save and change lives. You can change your life for the better, too! Here are some ways you can do that with Love Hope Strength:

Help save lives from your sofa! Get On the List if you haven’t already.

There are over 37,000 people across the globe with a blood cancer or blood disorder searching for a blood stem cell donation every year. Only 0.4% of the worldwide population are registered as a potential blood stem cell donor currently. The more people that register as a potential donor, the better changes for blood cancer patients of finding a match.

Please register to become a potential blood stem cell donor now if you haven’t already, and encourage your friends and family to do so too. Request your swab kit, which can be sent to your own home, here:

UK : www.dkms.org.uk/lhs

USA: https://www.dkms.org/en/register

Germany: https://www.dkms.de/de

(Please note that despite COVID-19, it is still safe to register as a potential blood stem cell donor. For more information, please see: www.dkms.org.uk/en/coronaviruscovid-19-update)

To date Love Hope Strength led by incredible volunteers and supported by partnerships with leading international organisations including the international blood cancer charity DKMS, has registered almost 250,000 people to international stem cell donor registries. Incredibly, approximately 4,500 of those who’ve registered have been identified as potentially life saving matches. Now, more than ever, people with blood cancer need our help to get people on the list.

Help change lives when you take your daily exercise.

In the past, thanks to the amazing generosity of our supporters, Love Hope Strength has helped to fund new equipment and facilities in hospitals in the UK and the USA, Africa and Asia. In May special Love Hope Strength grants of £2,000 will be awarded to cancer centres in the UK to help cancer care teams care for their patients at this particularly challenging time. These grants will support patient health and well-being, both in hospital in the community. Examples of what may be funded include additional equipment, for example syringe drivers to effectively administer medicines to help manage pain or electronic devices to help patients have ‘virtual visiting’ with family and for the cancer care team updates on patients.

Moving forward, Love Hope Strength will be looking at how we can best work with our international partners and collaborators to help families affected by cancer in underprivileged communities at this difficult time. At a time when most of us in Europe and North America can socially distance to stay safe, many people in Africa and Asia do not have that luxury. The most vulnerable, including people with cancer, in underprivileged countries face huge challenges, and cancer treatment centres are expected to be hit with crippling resource and funding issues both now and in the long term.

If you’d like to play a part in helping to keep people with cancer safe and ensuring they can access the treatment and support they need, why don’t you go for a longer walk than usual – 50 trips up and down your stairs in a day / 20 strolls around your block – and when you’ve finished, text ‘STRENGTH’ to 70490 to donate £5. This costs £5 plus a std rate message. 100% of your STRENGTH donation will support LHS’ mission to give hope and save lives, funding cancer care projects in the UK and in underprivileged communities across the globe.

You’ll be helping to give love hope and strength people who really need it, but you’ll also be helping yourself. It’s important that we’re looking after our own well-being at this time: being active and giving are two of the all important ‘5 ways to well-being’.

Help change your life.

We are now streaming LHS-produced films. At the centre of these films are poignant stories of survival and giving back, and of course, the message of love, hope and strength. Why not kick back and watch what have been described as an ‘inspirational, motivational collection of movies’?

The Man In The Camo Jacket: vimeo.com/ondemand/mitcj/405120769

More To Live For: vimeo.com/ondemand/moretolivefor/111849061

Everest Rocks: vimeo.com/ondemand/everestrocks/125497335

The Big Night In: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=497063094319685&ref=watch_permalink