Press Release

DKMS Africa scoops three awards at MMA SMARTIES South Africa

Award-winning campaigns recognised for driving blood cancer awareness and stem cell donor registrations through impactful storytelling.

22/05/2026

Cape Town 22 May 2026 - DKMS Africa extends its sincere gratitude to its patients, stem cell donors, hematology partners, ambassadors, supporters and funding partners whose continued support helps amplify the organisation’s life-saving work.

On 21 May 2026, DKMS Africa celebrated a major achievement at the Marketing + Media Alliance SMARTIES South Africa 2026 awards, where the organisation was recognised for its impactful campaigns focused on blood cancer awareness and stem cell donor recruitment.

DKMS Africa was nominated in all the below categories and received awards for the following campaigns:

Gold in Diversity & Inclusion – World Blood Cancer Campaign 2025
Silver in Social Impact Marketing – World Blood Cancer Campaign 2025
Gold in Small Budget, Big Impact – From Patient Appeal to Transplant: Saving Baby Leo

The SMARTIES Awards are globally recognised as a benchmark for marketing innovation, creativity and measurable impact, celebrating campaigns that drive meaningful engagement and social change.

“As an organisation, we remain committed to using every platform available to educate, inspire and ultimately help save lives. This recognition is a powerful reminder that purpose-led storytelling can drive meaningful action. Every campaign we create encourages people to register as stem cell donors, giving hope to patients waiting to find a matching donor. We are honoured to see this work recognised on such a respected platform,” said Palesa Mokomele, Head of Community Engagement and Communications at DKMS Africa.

DKMS Africa’s award-winning campaigns highlight the organisation’s ongoing commitment to increasing awareness around blood cancer and blood disorders, encouraging people from all walks of life to register as stem cell donors and sharing powerful patient stories that inspire action and meaningful public engagement through impactful storytelling.

Each award-winning campaign reflected a different dimension of DKMS Africa’s purpose-driven work. World Blood Cancer Campaign 2025 highlighted the importance of diversity and representation within stem cell donor registries, while encouraging more people to register as potential donors. From Patient Appeal to Transplant: Saving Baby Leo demonstrated how emotionally driven storytelling and digital awareness campaigns can translate into real-world impact by mobilising public support and contributing to a life-saving transplant journey.

“The jury team consisted of highly experienced and respected CMOs and creative executives in marketing who evaluated top-performing campaigns to determine the most deserving winners. We thank them for the incredible work they put into ensuring that outstanding campaigns receive the recognition they deserve,” said Mpho Dlamini, Regional Programme Director SSA of Smarties Awards.

About DKMS

DKMS is an international non-profit organization dedicated to the fight against blood cancer. It was founded in Germany in 1991 by Dr. Peter Harf and DKMS together with the organization’s over 1,200 employees and has since relentlessly pursued the aim of giving as many patients as possible a second chance at life. With over 13 million registered donors, DKMS has succeeded in doing this more than 115,000 times to date by providing blood stem cell donations to those in need. This accomplishment has led to DKMS becoming the global leader in the facilitation of unrelated blood stem cell transplants. The organization has offices in Germany, the US, Poland, the UK, Chile, and South Africa. The organization has offices in Germany, the US, Poland, the UK, Chile, India and South Africa.

DKMS is also heavily involved in the fields of medicine and science, with its own research unit focused on continually improving the survival and recovery rate of patients. In its high-performance laboratory, the DKMS Life Science Lab, the organization sets worldwide standards in the typing of potential blood stem cell donors.

DKMS Africa received its WMDA certification in 2025, cementing its position as South Africa’s biggest and most diverse stem cell donor registry.