GET TESTED! was founded in 2009 and kicked off with a hugely successful collaboration between The Hepatitis C Trust and Pete Tong’s international Music Summit (IMS) which we've repeated each May since and raised over £35,000 in the process. Since our inception celebrity designers such as Bella Freud, Sadie Frost, Beatrix Ong and Pearl Lowe and Giles Deacon as well as scenesters Jodie Harsh and Ollie Sim from The XX have each designed T shirts for the campaign, we’ve put on a sold out gigs at the Paradise and The Jazz cafe, we taken over the guest list at We Love at Space attended film premiers, promoted a hugely successful photography campaign with Boy George and constantly found innovative ways to fundraise.
Most importantly in May 2010 The World Health Organisation committed to raising awareness of Viral Hepatitis due to the lobbying of The Hepatitis C Trust and The World Hepatitis Alliance, which we also run from our London offices.
The Hepatitis C Trust is committed to addressing health inequalities by raising awareness and promoting testing in hard to reach groups at high risk, including homeless and ethnic minority communities, especially the South Asian ones. Throughout 2010 we have rolled out mobile clinics all over the UK and tested and diagnosed many people.
More testing and more awareness raising needs to be done as too many people are still dying unnecessarily of Hepatitis C. As GET TESTED! gathers momentum and raises more money we will be able to supply more services across the UK.
