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Press release: STEM CELL DONORS CALLED UP FOR WORLD CUP ‘MATCH OF THE DAY’ CAMPAIGN

Charity capitalises on World Cup to create shareable content that will bust myths and reach young men

Blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan has kick-started a new awareness campaign on social media, working with its stem cell donors to coincide with the World Cup in Brazil.

Anthony Nolan has asked a selection of stem cell donors to predict the scores of selected games during the World Cup, as they donate their cells to save the life of a blood cancer patient with a matching tissue type.

The snapshot predictions were made by people who have donated their stem cells in the last few weeks after proving to be a best ‘match’ for a stranger in desperate need of a transplant.

The photos will be shared on Anthony Nolan’s social media platforms before each game via the #MatchOTD hashtag and will include a little about the donor, their reason for donating and how it feels to donate.

Anthony Nolan’s opening posts showed promise with the combined reach from Facebook and Twitter of over 71,000 people. Facebook proved particularly popular with over 580 likes and 60 shares.



Anthony Nolan uses its register to match potential bone marrow donors to blood cancer patients in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor. The campaign is particularly relevant to Anthony Nolan because they need more young men aged 16-30 to sign up, as they are most likely to be chosen to donate but make up just 14% of the register.

Alexander Scott, Head of Marketing at Anthony Nolan, says, ‘With the 2014 World Cup set to be the biggest social media event of all time we wanted to capitalise on this fantastic opportunity to access our hard to reach audiences and potential lifesavers. Our aim is to provide our audience with highly shareable and likeable content.

‘We also want to dispel myths around donating bone marrow, or stem cells, by highlighting how easy and pain free the process is, using photos and quotes from donors. We hope to shine a light on the “feel good” side to donations through the medium of football.

“Donating is the easy bit. The hard bit is watching England play afterwards…”

People aged 16-30 can join the register online at