Four Years On: Remembering the #TestBashathon for UNICEF Covax
Four years ago today, Bruce Hughes (the legend) and I joined Ministry of Testing’s #TestBashHome virtual conference and began our marathon, something that felt equal parts ambitious and absurd: we would stay online, awake, and fully engaged for every minute of the 24‑hour programme. Our goal was simple yet urgent: to raise funds for UNICEF’s COVAX initiative, which was working to make COVID-19 vaccines affordable and accessible worldwide.
Back in June 2021, vaccines were still rolling out unevenly, and global access was far from guaranteed. Many of us felt a mixture of relief, anxiety, and helplessness. The #TestBashathon sprang from that moment. If the testing community knows how to do anything, it is to rally around a challenge, share knowledge freely, and look after one another. We believed those same instincts could help people far beyond our own networks.
A community that showed up
We set up a Crowdfunder page, aimed for £2,000, and hoped for the best. The testing community blew past that figure in no time, ultimately donating a little over £4,000. Some gave money, others gave time, and many kept us going with late‑night encouragement when eyelids grew heavy. You can still visit the original page here, a modest monument to collective generosity:
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/testbash-home-247-for-covax
The warmth of those twenty‑four hours was captured beautifully by our friend Emna Ayadi in her post‑conference interview with participants. Reading it now always reminds me how energising communal effort can be.
My personal hourly challenge
To keep visibility (and spirits) high, I decided to wear a different swag top from past testing events every single hour. It was a playful way to honour the conferences and meet‑ups that had shaped my career while giving me a prompt to tweet a fresh photo and reminder about the fundraiser, as well as giving me the chance to tag those sponsors in posts to hopefully encourage more reach and donations. Those posts threaded a steady beat through the day, turning each costume change into a mini‑celebration of the wider community’s history and range.
Stephen Denman took it upon himself to collate into a GIF on Twitter (RIP) – you can still find it here if you can bear to still visit that site: https://x.com/superstevetest/status/1406564787903946754
Why it still matters
#TestBashHome and all the other online events were never just conferences or meetups. In the isolation of lockdowns, they became a lifelines: vibrant chat rooms, shared jokes, and genuine care for fellow testers and humans. The COVAX fundraiser showed that the same bonds translate directly into real‑world impact when we act together.
Four years later, Twitter is no longer the thriving hub it once was, and our industry has evolved in countless ways. Yet the core values of this community remain constant: curiosity, generosity, and a willingness to lift others up. Whenever I wonder whether small actions make a difference, I look back at that sleepless day and remember that they absolutely can.
A note of thanks
If you donated, retweeted, chatted with us at 3 a.m., or simply sent a thumbs‑up emoji, thank you. The #TestBashathon proved what is possible when testers pool their energy for something bigger than the next release.
Here is to the next challenge, whatever form it takes, and to the people who make our corner of tech a place worth staying awake for.
