It’s in the Bag was first formed as a charity fund in 2009, part of Above and Beyond Hospital Charity. Led by Rob Buy and Sue Brand, The Magnificent Seven as they were referred to, also included Bill Brand; Richard Bullard; Mike Morgan; Pete Styles & Steve Watkins. They had meetings with other survivors and clinical staff, including top testicular cancer specialist Dr Jeremy Braybrooke, to ascertain what the aims of the fund should be.
The aims were: Raise Awareness, Give Support & Information and Celebrate Survival, which have stayed with IITB for 15 years.
Bill Brand thought of the name It’s in the Bag, and the group decided on orange underpants. The first big fundraiser was The Testicular Ball, the brainchild of Richard and Mike who decided on the name while having chemotherapy.
In 2012 It’s in the Bag won The Excellence in Oncology UK Charity Initiative of the year for the Keep Calm and Check Your Balls Campaign and patient led mechanisms. It was a great year for the charity as we organised our first Splosh for Dosh and Support Weekend.
It’s in the Bag got a bit too big for the hospital charity, so in 2014 the team decided to work towards becoming an independent charity. After some hard work and commitment from the team, we were registered in September 2015.
This allowed the team to develop new and exciting initiatives and support more projects. The logo was changed to reflect modern times and a new website was built to launch the new standalone charity. Since then, It’s in the Bag has gone from strength to strength and this small but perfectly formed team definitely punch above their weight!
