Lord's will turn red on Friday 5 June for the eighth annual #RedForRuth day, when the ground hosts day two of the Rothesay Men's Test between England and New Zealand. The tribute has grown far beyond a one-off gesture. It is now one of cricket's most visible charity campaigns, with the sport again gathering behind Ruth Strauss and the foundation created in her name.
For Gemma, the reason it matters is painfully practical. She received support from the Ruth Strauss Foundation after being diagnosed with incurable cancer, and says the help gave her words for conversations many parents dread. Her experience is part of why the campaign still resonates: it is not only about money raised on a summer day, but about what families are able to say to one another when the diagnosis changes everything.
Since 2019, the cricket community has helped the Ruth Strauss Foundation support more than 5,000 families facing incurable cancer, train over 1,800 healthcare professionals and raise more than £4.4 million. The foundation's Family Support Service is designed to help parents talk to their children about some of the hardest news they will ever have to deliver. Ines Thiru, the charity's chief executive, said cricket has been integral from the beginning and that the latest research shows the sport is helping families find the foundation as well as funding it.
That research also points to the gap between impact and awareness. Among Sky viewers, one in eight people said they were aware of the Ruth Strauss Foundation, even as more than four in five people who discovered it through cricket said they felt proud that the game supports the cause. The campaign has clearly taken root inside the sport, but outside it the name still reaches only a fraction of the audience the fundraising has touched.
The foundation has recently merged with Maggie's, a move it says is meant to combine expertise and reach so more people affected by cancer can get support. Thiru said the new partnership gives the organisation a chance to scale up and bring help to even more families in the years ahead. For Friday's match at Lord's, though, the message is simpler and immediate: the ground will go red again, and cricket will once more ask its followers to notice what that colour has already done for thousands of families.
