Give hope to a cancer patient in need

Support a worthy cause this month, by getting your own multi-purpose accessory from the Sunflower Foundation. A TOPE (derived from the phrase ‘tube of hope’) is a tubular piece of fabric similar to the buffs worn by contestants on the popular TV series Survivor.

TOPES will be available from 1 August, and will form part of this year’s Sunflower Day campaign.

The TOPE comes in six vibrant colours, and various sizes, and can be used as a scarf, a tube-top, or even a skirt, or anything else your imagination conjures up, and retails from R30 at Pick n Pay stores, selected independent pharmacies and online at Zando. Each colour represents hope and displays various ‘hopetags’. “Hopetags are a series of hash tags that will be used throughout the campaign as labels to unite and empower us rather than the divisive labels that society has become accustomed to,” said Kim Webster, Head of Communications at The Sunflower Fund.

The Sunflower Fund wants to use Bone Marrow Stem Cell Donation and Leukemia Awareness Month to remind South Africans that they are able to change the staggeringly low number of bone marrow donors.

The Sunflower Fund is a donor recruitment centre and stem cell registry dedicated to creating awareness about blood diseases and stem cell donations, and recruiting stem cell donors, and is anchored by the sale of the TOPES. Their aim is to raise funds to pay for the cost of the tissue-typing tests needed to establish whether a donor is a match for a recipient, and give hope to the patients looking for their life-saving match.

For more information about The Sunflower Fund, or to become a donor, visit https://www.sunflowerfund.org or contact 080 012 1082.