Introduction
Love Your Nuts (LYN) is a registered Section 18A, non-profit testicular cancer awareness campaign based in South Africa.
In his thirties, Torsten Koehler, the founder of LYN Foundation, was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1995 ironically whilst educating young teenagers about sex education at a school where he was employed as a teacher.
His journey of survival started by openly confronting his thoughts and emotions, relating the reactions of his friends, family and not least, his students, who gave him enormous help and hope. With their encouragement, the German version of his book “Love your nuts” was published in Germany in 2004 and thereafter in English in 2011.
The motivation to start this foundation was inspired by a former student who thanked him for making him aware during his awareness sessions at the school they attended: “Because you made us aware I went to the doctor in time. I’ve got testicular cancer too. I’m 16 and you saved my life”.
Torsten is now sharing his story through the platform of the Love Your Nuts Foundation emphasising how everybody is valuable the way they are and how fantastic life can be and therefore has a passion for this campaign – summed up in the videos above and on the homepage.
Love your Nuts in a Nutshell – Downloads
Overview of the organisation (summary, campaign service history and images).
BEE Affidavit & Black Ownership
NPO Certificate
PBO Certificate
Our Purpose
The goal of Love Your Nuts is to raise awareness of (testicular) cancer by educating communities about the rarely spoken about cancer that often remains undetected in young adults due to our diverse society in South Africa, where cultural taboos, stigmas and a lack of knowledge about the subject is widespread.
What we do
Education
We give educational and motivational talks at schools, corporates, sport clubs and events.
Awareness
We focus on running and cycling events to raise awareness. The participants at these events are a lot of young men – our target group. We encourage men to run or cycle in our merchandise (vest and speedo) because it draws a lot attention especially on social media. Besides that, we are open to any “nuts idea”, that draws attention and raises funds. Fell free to contact us with your idea.
Support
We support men diagnosed with testicular cancer emotionally. It is often easier to share thoughts and fears with a survivor than a family member or friend. Building a network of survivors nationwide/worldwide that support patients is an ongoing process. If you are a survivor and like to help, please get in touch.