#AmazonGoesGold for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

More than 100,000 children die from cancer every year around the world, and in many countries childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease among children.

This September, #AmazonGoesGold to raise awareness and funds for charity partners doing incredible work to increase survival rates, improve therapies and ultimately find a cure for childhood cancers.

For the fourth year in a row, we’re delighted to be supporting and collaborating with key childhood cancer organisations across Europe who make it possible for every child affected by cancer to fight for their future. These organisations, supported by Amazon, work in areas such as advocacy for research funding, drug development, direct care provision, family support and clinical trials.

Together, we can support and make a difference in the fight for survival of these children and families, and work towards a future in which no child is taken by childhood cancer.

Hannah Moody, Community Champion for Amazon’s Manchester office, said: “We’re delighted to be raising awareness and money with Amazon Goes Gold again this year. With my own background in voluntary services, I’ve found it particularly rewarding to raise awareness about this cause and have the opportunity to pay tribute to the children’s incredible strength and courage.”

Here are some of the ways Amazon employees will be supporting the cause throughout September and beyond.

Gold-themed PJammin™ parties

On September 15 and 16, employees in the UK joined the global #AmazonGoesGold movement by hosting gold-themed, 48-hour #PJammin™ parties to support local families affected by childhood cancer.

From fulfilment centres to customer service centres, Amazon employees will have a chance to participate in PJammin’™ and help create awareness locally in the communities where they live and work.

The theme pays tribute to brave children with cancer, who can spend months or even years in their pyjamas during treatment and recovery.

Charitable donations with the PJammin’™ Competition

After a successful launch last year, Amazon will be running the PJammin’ Competition once again for employees across many of our UK sites.

That means our sites with the highest percentage of employees taking part in PJammin™ parties can win the opportunity to make a £10,000 donation to a national children’s cancer charity partner. In total, three donations of £10,000 are on offer across the UK.

Virtual STEM Camps: Gold Edition

At Amazon, we believe that all children should have the tools and resources they need to achieve their best future.

We want to encourage children who have been diagnosed with cancer to think big, innovate, and have hope for the future. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we also want to make sure children in hospital wards do not miss out on the same learning opportunities as their peers in school.

That’s why this year we are partnering with UK charity Starlight Children’s Foundation to train Health Play Workers in the delivery of Virtual STEM Camps. Each participating hospital will receive a Marty Robotics kit – a fun, interactive STEM robots for kids to learn about programming, robotics and computational thinking – plus all the tools and training they need to deliver STEM workshops in the future.

Getting creative with video

Although we cannot run in-person events this year, Amazon employees will still be engaging with young children impacted by cancer through fun, creative videos.

The videos will be judged for their creativity and entertainment value by Amazon’s charity partners, and the winning site will be given £40,000 to donate to a leading cancer research charity.

There’s only one rule: the video must feature PJs in some way!

Watch this space to see our favourite entries later in September.

Around the UK, we’ll be bringing our sites to life in order to raise awareness for childhood cancer. It has become a tradition for these sites to be heavily decorated as they ‘go gold’ – so look out for gold balloons and lots of tinsel!

This year, due to COVID-19, many of our charity partners have been unable to rely on their usual mechanisms to raise awareness and funds.

That means our support is even more critically needed – not just in the UK, but across North America, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Poland, Czech Republic and Australia, where Amazon employees will be showing their solidarity with children and their families impacted by cancer.

Find out more about how Amazon supports local communities and charities.