Joko & Klaas
That’s how successful her treasure hunt for stem cell donors was
Joko and Klaas didn’t just make the finder happy with their treasure hunt.
© ProSieben / Nadine Rupp
For their promotion of stem cell donations: Joko Winterscheidt and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf receive the award from a cancer initiative.
With their treasure hunt that they organized after their victory at “Joko & Klaas against ProSieben”. Joko Winterscheidt (45) and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf (40) didn’t just make one candidate rich. With this campaign in November 2023, the moderator duo also generated attention for the donation of stem cells. For this they will now receive the YES!Award Ring of Courage from the yeswecan!cer initiative. This was announced by the non-profit organization from Berlin.
The Ring of Courage award ceremony will take place on May 4th as part of YES!CON in Berlin. It is the largest cancer convention in Germany. “Your continuous, intelligent, empathetic and generous commitment to essential health issues and the central principle of solidarity are invaluable for all those affected by cancer,” said yeswecan!cer founder Jörg A. Hoppe.
In November 2023, Joko and Klaas used the airtime they won against ProSieben for a campaign with the DKMS bone marrow donor database. They hid a suitcase containing a million euros somewhere in Germany. During the treasure hunt, which lasted several days, they asked viewers to register as stem cell donors.
38,000 registrations for stem cell file thanks to treasure hunt
With success. The goal of 10,000 new registrations was exceeded after just 24 hours. According to DKMS, a total of more than 38,000 people requested a set. As the organization, which is dedicated to combating blood cancer, has now announced, three people have already been able to receive stem cell donations.
“We wanted the DKMS in particular, and therefore many bone cancer sufferers, to benefit directly from the campaign,” explained Joko Winterscheidt. “I think it’s important to emphasize the life-affirming aspect and to get people who are in danger of falling into great hopelessness because of their diagnosis out of this emotional one-way street with a lot of positive commitment,” said Klaas Heufer-Umlauf.