DT38 Round: Raising awareness down under
Football West News
Round 13 of the National Premier Leagues WA competition this weekend has been rebranded DT38 Round as Football West teams up with the DT38 Australia charity to help raise awareness of testicular cancer.
The teams and officials at all six matches will enter the pitch behind a DT38 banner, with the respective captains and match officials sporting DT38 T-shirts.
Clubs are also being encouraged to get their players, members and supporters to take up the offer of a free screening, with a prize up for grabs to the club which gets the most.
The DT38 Australia charity is named in honour of the late West Australian footballer Dylan Tombides, who died of testicular cancer in 2014 aged just 20.
Dylan, who was with West Ham United at the time of his death, came through the junior ranks at Perth SC and Stirling Lions. The two teams will meet in the DT38 Round feature match at Dorrien Gardens on Saturday.
DT38 Australia Media and Communications Manager Donna Giuffre this week pressed home the charity’s message of “raising awareness down under” as she urged young men not to ignore their wellbeing.
“For the first time we are doing a whole DT38 Round in conjunction with Football West, so all NPL clubs will be participating,” she told The NPL Wrap podcast. “All of the clubs will be involved but Perth and Stirling is the main game.
“We’ve noticed a pattern that men’s health is not really spoken about. You hear about breast cancer, cervical cancer and what not, but testicular cancer isn’t really spoken about. We’re here to tell people it’s okay to speak about it and go and get checked out.
“It’s sad that we’ve had to have such a tragic loss to open our eyes up. But that’s also the beauty of it, that Dylan’s legacy is also saving lives.
“Every year Ultrasound Services (through) the amazing Duncan Hardy offers free scans from ages 15-45. The next one is in August, so we are going to be advertising that all over our social media platform.
“There’s also going to be a little challenge behind it. So for every player that goes and registers to get the scan done, they need to let them know what club they are from and at the end of that we will be doing a tally and a bag of equipment is going to be donated to the winning club.”
Football West Head of Member Services Alex Novatsis joined the DT38 Australia committee earlier this year.
“I said at the time that we wanted to give our full backing to DT38 Australia and we are all very excited that the DT38 Round has come to fruition,” he said.
“I’d like to thank all of the clubs, players, referees and everyone else who are getting behind this important initiative. What happened to Dylan was a tragedy. We want to ensure no other families have to suffer that way, especially if it is preventable with an early diagnosis.”
For more details on DT38 Australia and how you can be involved please contact their Media and Communications Manager Donna Giuffre at donna.giuffre@dt38.com.au, and for further information on testicular cancer please click here: https://dt38.com.au/
LINKS
DT38 AUSTRALIA: FREE TESTICULAR CANCER SCREENING
LISTEN: DONNA GIUFFRE’S FULL INTERVIEW WITH THE NPL WRAP
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