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We held Melanoma Awareness Day on July 23rd 2005: blanket cover of the national, regional and local media with our new posters, logo and slogan The Darker Side of the Sun brought very good cover from as far afield as Derby, Bolton, Glasgow and Northampton and lots of new supporters.
It was so encouraging that the next year (2006) we organised Melanoma Awareness Week June 3rd to 11th , which covers two entire weekends: it was advertised in Foresight, the essential publication for all editors, that advertises all coming events nationally.
We are gaining increasing numbers of supporters: and many of them (you) held fundraising events during Melanoma Awareness Week, contacted their local press, and distributed Darker Side of the Sun leaflets which we will supply (just contact Harry Townsend, 6 Manor Road, East Grinstead, West Sussex, RH19 1LR 01342 322508 townsendharrt@btinternet.com if you want a ‘starter pack’ of leaflets, wrist bands, packets of sweet pea seeds!)
What sort of fundraising events took place?
Well, Marian Bisson in Bexhill held a Garden Party and Bring and Buy and raised £256.00: lots of supporters collected outside Sainsbury’s in East Grinstead and raised more than £300: Mr and Mrs Walsh took a stall at a Boot Sale in Crawley and raised more than £50: and so it went on....
Melanoma Awareness Week took place in 2007 from June 16th to 24th: we planned early, contacted more than 250 media outlets (local, regional and national) and even got four regional radio interviews and some newspaper exposure: all very encouraging, but with personal local input we'd have got far more! The big plus was the support from Haskins Garden Centre in East Grinstead, with wonderful support from manager Nici Dell and her staff. Our increasingly large team including Gordon Hyde, Jo Coxhead, Theresa Oakley, Marian Bisson and Peggy Hyde raised more than £1,300.00 over the two weekends!
Support and exposure is rising year by year: and we hope for national cover in 2008 when Melanoma Awareness Week will take place from June 14th to 21st: and yes, we'll be at Haskins again for both weekends!
’re starting to plan early, and with my background in horticulture (Assistant Curator of Kew Gardens) and sport, we hope that the horticultural and sporting press will give space to publicise a disease with no guaranteed cure which affects so many people who take part in outdoor hobbies and pursuits.
If you’ve got any contacts (press, television, radio on a national, regional or local level), please get in touch with them yourself and direct them to us as well.
They’re interested in your story, and your reasons for wanting to find a cure for this terrible disease of malignant melanoma.
We’re all in this together.
We send out a regular Round Robin newsletter to supporters: if you would like your name added to the distribution list, just let me know.
I’ll update this Melanoma Awareness Week section as we progress
Harry Townsend