Meet our ROAR-some fundraisers from last year’s DinoDay Challenge

4 mins read

Tuesday 21 May 2024

Tags: dinoday

It’s only 1 month until DinoDay, but there’s still lots of time to join the fun and fundraiser for Contact. All you have to do is take on 19 activities with your family before the 15 July!

Register to take part today and we’ll send your child a FREE t-shirt and activity tracker (once you’ve received a donation) so your little dino can complete their challenge in style!

Looking for inspiration? Look no further than some of our top fundraisers from last year’s challenge, who between them took on 19 new foods, 19 different sports and walked 19 laps of a pond.

Ziggy trying 19 new foods in the DinoDay Challenge 2023

Ziggy

After spending most of his life being tube-fed and completely orally averse, Ziggy’s parents challenged him to try 19 new foods for DinoDay last year and he absolutely smashed it!!

His family were really struggling to motivate Ziggy to eat a wider range of foods, so our challenge came at the perfect time for them.

“Every day Ziggy would say to us: ‘So what’s my new food today!’,” his mum Jackie told us. “He loved doing the challenge, and it was wonderful to see just how much support he received from our family and friends. He did so well and talked about it at school for weeks! We are so proud of him and grateful to you for the inspiration.”

Ellie

Ellie, who has epilepsy and cerebral palsy, raised a whopping £300 last year by taking on 19 days of sports!!

From swimming to hula-hooping, Ellie completed a different fitness challenge each day to prove once and for all that having a disability doesn’t make you any less DINO-mite.

Not only did she enjoy doing the activities, she also loved to see that other people believed in her ability to do them.

Ellie taking on 19 sports in the DinoDay Challenge 2023
Evelyn taking on 19 laps of her local lake in the DinoDay Challenge 2023

Evelyn

At just 20 months old, Evelyn’s DinoDay t-shirt was nearly touching the floor, but that didn’t stop her from stomping round 19 laps of a gigantic pond and raising over £300!


Evelyn’s mum told us. “We decided on walking 19 laps of our local parks duck pond – it was a big challenge for our one year old’s little legs, but she managed to complete the laps and enjoyed every minute of the walk and of course feeding the ducks!”

“If anyone is thinking about doing the challenge, I would totally recommend it! It’s so fun, you can choose your activity and raise money for a worthy cause. Now we just need to decide what to do this year!”

Sarah, parent to last year’s dino-mite stomper Evelyn

Are you roaring to go?

Taking part in the 2024 challenge is easy – here’s how:

  1. Join our DinoDay Stomp & Roar Challenge Facebook group – where you can meet other families taking part and share your progress. It’s filled with super cute photos and heartwarming stories that are guaranteed to brighten up your day!
  2. Register for your free t-shirt and activity tracker by completing this quick form
  3. Choose an activity for your challenge, whatever you choose is totally up to your family – walk 19 miles, draw 19 dinosaurs, try 19 new foods…just make sure the number 19 is involved!
  4. Set up your fundraising page here and ask your friends and family to sponsor you, or download a copy of our sponsorship form if you’d prefer to fundraise offline

We’ll automatically ship your t-shirt and activity tracker once you receive at least one donation to your fundraiser. If you’re itching to get them now, you can make a donation to your own fundraiser and we’ll ship it straight away – any amount will do!

Why dinosaurs and why the number 19?

DinoDay is our annual fundraising event inspired by a little boy called Cameron Mathieson and his amazing family. With Contact’s support, they launched a long and ultimately successful landmark legal challenge that guaranteed no other child would have their DLA suspended while in hospital.

Cameron, who had Cystic Fibrosis and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, sadly passed away when he was five years old after spending nearly three of those years in hospital.

Every year since then, we celebrate Cameron’s birthday on 19 June with DinoDay – a tribute to Cam’s love of dinosaurs, especially his green triceratops called Troy!

As well as supporting our vital services, the funds you raise this June will also help us campaign to tackle the inequalities that families with disabled children face, like we did for Mathieson’s family and thousands of others since.

Have any questions?

You will likely find all the answers you’re looking for in our DinoDay Challenge FAQs. But if not, just drop us an email at fundraising@contact.org.uk contact our team on 020 7608 8786 and we’ll help you out!