Intersport Germany and DKMS turn sport’s team spirit into a campaign against blood cancer

A €50,000 donation has brought a year of joint activity between Intersport Germany and DKMS to a close—one that combined retail, football and donor registration to promote potentially life-saving stem cell donations.

The donation check was presented at Intersport Germany’s headquarters in Heilbronn at the conclusion of the partnership’s campaign. The initiative was built around a simple idea: the solidarity and sense of community associated with sport can also help people understand the importance of supporting blood-cancer patients.

The partnership began in May, when Intersport retailers in several German regions hosted joint registration days with DKMS. Visitors could learn about stem cell donation and register as potential donors.

The campaign continued in July at Intersport’s Clubhouse in Berlin. There, a football event—the “DKMS Clubhouse Cup”—combined a two-on-two tournament with a donor-registration drive. Participants and visitors could provide a cheek swab to join the DKMS donor database.

That combination of sport and social engagement was central to the campaign’s approach. Rather than treating donor recruitment as a stand-alone appeal, the events placed it within familiar community settings where people could meet, play and act together.

“Sport thrives on community, solidarity, and standing up for one another,” said Alexander von Preen, CEO of Intersport Germany. “These very values also guide our social commitment as a company—and they underpin our partnership with DKMS.”

DKMS Germany Managing Director Stephan Schumacher said sporting environments were especially valuable for reaching younger people. Clubs, tournaments and grassroots sporting communities create settings in which teamwork and responsibility are already familiar ideas.

“Sport is the ideal platform for us, as it allows us to reach many young people in particular,” Schumacher said. He added that the campaign’s registration activities helped create a shared sense of purpose around the possibility of giving another person a second chance at life.

A continuing need for new donors

The campaign comes against the continuing challenge of finding suitable stem cell matches for people with blood cancer. DKMS says that, in Germany, a person receives a blood-cancer diagnosis every 12 minutes. Worldwide, the organization says the interval is approximately 27 seconds. For many patients, a stem cell transplant may offer the only realistic chance of survival.

DKMS reports that more than 13.5 million potential donors are registered across its international network and that it has helped facilitate more than 140,000 stem cell donations. Even so, the organization says that around one in 10 blood-cancer patients in Germany still fails to find a suitable donor.

The need for new registrations is particularly pressing because donor records are not permanent. Potential donors remain available for searches until they reach the legally defined age limit of 61. DKMS says that approximately 160,000 people will leave its database for this reason during 2026, increasing the importance of recruiting younger donors.

In Germany, healthy people generally between the ages of 17 and 55 can register as potential donors. Registration usually involves a cheek swab, which is used to determine relevant tissue characteristics. A person’s data is then made available in pseudonymized form for national and international searches.

Registration does not mean that a person will necessarily go on to donate. According to DKMS, roughly one in 100 registered potential donors ultimately provides stem cells. But every registration expands the pool from which a match may be found—and for a patient waiting for a transplant, that match can be decisive.

More than a donation

The €50,000 contribution therefore represents only one part of Intersport Germany’s support. The wider campaign used the company’s stores, events and sports-focused spaces to generate awareness as well as financial assistance.

That approach reflects a broader role increasingly expected of sports organizations and retailers: to use their reach not only to sell products or stage competitions, but also to mobilize communities around public-interest causes.

For Intersport, the partnership also aligned with its 70th anniversary activities. For DKMS, it provided access to a network capable of connecting with people who may not otherwise encounter information about stem cell donation.

The campaign’s closing moment in Heilbronn offered a visible symbol of that cooperation: a cheque handed over by Intersport Germany representatives to DKMS, following months in which football and donor recruitment shared the same venues.

The message behind the campaign was consistent with both organizations’ language: individual participation matters, but collective action creates the greatest impact. On the playing field, a team works toward a shared result. In the fight against blood cancer, the equivalent of a winning play may be a new registration, a financial contribution—or a donor who eventually matches a patient in need.