The male cancer charity founded in memory of Dylan Tombides is marking the tenth anniversary of Dylan’s passing with a host of events in 2024...
West Ham United and Dagenham & Redbridge Legends will take to the pitch in aid of DT38 Foundation on Saturday 18 May.
Teams representing the Hammers and Daggers will pull on their boots one more time for the Dylan Tombides Charity Match at Chigwell Construction Stadium, with kick-off at 2pm.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the passing of the promising Australian striker, who sadly died at the age of 20 in April 2014, three years after initially being diagnosed with testicular cancer.
An official charity partner of West Ham United, DT38 Foundation was formed in Tombides’ memory by his mother Tracy and the Tombides family in 2015, and has since raised awareness of testicular cancer, the importance of education and self-checking to enable early diagnosis and, ultimately, save lives.
“Ten years since the passing of my son Dylan it feels so right that an event centred around football is being staged to honour his legacy and to raise funds for DT38 and help us continue our work raising awareness of testicular cancer,” Tracy said.
“So many top players from two great clubs in one place standing together for men’s health. It’s going to be fantastic. A huge thank you to everyone involved from the Daggers and the Hammers.”
To raise funds for DT38 to continue their work in the UK and Australia, former West Ham and Dagenham favourites will put on a show in east London in May.
Managed by former Academy Director Tony Carr, the Hammers will be represented by favourites from years gone by, including Dean Ashton, Carlton Cole, James Collins, Alan Dickens, Marlon Harewood, Paul Konchesky, Henri Lansbury, David Martin and Jimmy Walker, while the Daggers will field stars from their golden period of 2008-11, when they won promotion to League One.
Fellow legends Tony Cottee, Tony Gale, Phil Parkes and Mark Ward will be rubbing shoulders with supporters in the hospitality areas.
Tickets for the Dylan Tombides Charity Match are on sale now, priced from £15 for Adults, £7 for Concessions and £5 for Under-16s. Click HERE to buy yours now!
The charity holds regular events in both the UK and Australia to raise awareness and educate men of the need for early detection and diagnosis.
West Ham’s Academy of Football played host to an awareness and education day in March, where Tracy and Dylan’s brother Taylor were joined by Dylan’s former teammates Carlton Cole and Matt Jarvis and current men’s team players Aaron Cresswell, Danny Ings, Ben Johnson and Angelo Ogbonna.
In February, A-League club Perth Glory, who welcomed West Ham in July 2023, held a DT38 Awareness Match against Brisbane Roar. Glory have made DT38 its principal charity partner, while Roar have appointed the Foundation as a charity partner and also held their own Awareness Match for the A-League fixture with Newcastle Jets yesterday, Saturday 13 April.
In the meantime, Dylan’s former clubs Perth Soccer Club and Stirling Macedonia FC met in the National Premier League of Western Australia at Dorrien Gardens on 22 March in a match which doubled as the first leg of the Dylan Tombides Cup. The second leg will take place at Macedonia Park, where West Ham trained last summer, on Saturday 22 June.
Later this year, Charity Golf Days will be held at the Joondalup Resort in Perth, Western Australia, and at a sold-out Langdon Hills Golf & Country Club on 13 August, the DT38KM Challenge will take place in September, and a White Collar Boxing event will take place at the historic York Hall in Bethnal Green on Sunday 17 November.
For more information about upcoming events, how you can get involved and support DT38 Foundation, or to check for signs and symptoms of testicular cancer, visit dt38.org
