Important health and safety tips for dipping indoors or in open water so you can understand how to stay safe while fundraising for Cancer Research UK.
Supporters raise money by challenging themselves to do 12 cold-water dips in whatever way they choose over the month of December.
Once you’ve signed up, join the Facebook group dedicated to this challenge and click 'Join Group'. Once you're in, you can complete a form to get your free Santa hat, get tips for completing the distance, be inspired by other fundraisers and find out anything you want to know about the challenge.
Yes. If you don’t have Facebook, you can set up a Cancer Research UK online Giving Page and collect sponsorship for your 12 Dips of Christmas Challenge.
There is no entry fee for this challenge, but we do ask that you fundraise for Cancer Research UK through your online Giving Page. All donations to the page will automatically be sent to us.
The minimum age for participation is 18. Anyone under this age shouldn’t take part in the 12 Dips of Christmas Challenge.
Participants must register as individuals, but you can then set up a team Giving Page to take on the challenge and raise money together.
Here’s how:
All your team will need to sign up to the 12 Dips of Christmas Challenge so you each have your own online Giving Page
Once everyone has signed up, log into your account.
Hit the 'Create new team' button and follow the instructions.
Once you've created your team, you can send the team page URL to friends and family so they can join too.
Find more information about setting up a team.
For this challenge, if you have raised £200 or more, excluding Gift Aid, on your online Giving Page by 5 January you will be sent a medal. You'll also be sent a certificate in your completion email at the end of your challenge, and can access shareable digital badges to shout about your achievement on social media.
Medals will be shipped throughout December and then up until the week after the challenge ends to supporters who have raised £200 or more, excluding Gift Aid, on their online Giving Page. Delivery should take around 15 working days.
The challenge is to complete 12 cold-water dips in the month of December.
There are lots of ways to complete the challenge and raise money for our life-saving work. Choose what works best for you and take the plunge your way:
Visit your local swimming baths or leisure centre
Check out a local lido
Plunge into a paddling pool
Have a cold shower
Try an ice bath
Try your local lake or loch
Take a dip in the sea
While we encourage everyone to complete this challenge in December, this is a personal challenge, and you can start and finish at a time that’s convenient for you. You can complete your dips at any point of the month and continue the challenge into January.
We trust you! You don’t need to provide evidence that you’ve completed the challenge to us, but your friends and family will want some updates.
Make sure you keep them posted on your progress and share videos and photos throughout the month – the more updates the better.
The only thing that matters is that you try your best to complete as much of the challenge as you can. Whether that’s completing all 12 dips in December or not, the money you raise will help us to keep funding life-saving research. Whatever you manage to achieve, we can’t thank you enough.
It’s important you’re well prepared for your swim, especially if you haven't been swimming for a while.
Here’s some equipment you might want to consider:
Swimsuit/swim shorts
Goggles
Ear plugs
Nose clip
If you do attempt to complete the challenge outdoors, please wear a t-shirt while swimming to help retain body heat. You might also like to wear a wetsuit to aid buoyancy and make you more comfortable in the water. We also recommend neoprene gloves and booties. Ultimately, you should wear what you’re comfortable in and what keeps you warm.
If you’re planning to wear a tracking device, make sure it’s waterproof before entering the water.
If you’re attempting the challenge outdoors, please wear a t-shirt while swimming to help retain body heat. You may also like to wear a wetsuit to aid buoyancy and make you more comfortable in the water. We also recommend neoprene gloves and booties. Ultimately, you should wear what you’re comfortable in and what keeps you warm.
If you’re planning to wear a tracking device, make sure it’s waterproof before entering the water.
It isn’t safe to swim in a reservoir due to the following hazards:
Reservoirs can be deceptively deep, with unexpected drops which aren’t visible from outside the water.
Reservoirs are often in isolated places, making it difficult to receive immediate help.
Hidden pipes and machinery can be hazardous.
The sides can be steep and difficult to get out from.
There may be hidden obstacles, rubbish or broken glass that people have discarded which might cause injury.
The temperature tends to be very low.
Complete this form to receive your free Santa hat in the post. Once completed, please allow 15 working days for it to arrive.
When filling out your sign-up form, select ‘no’ where it asks if you’d like to receive a Cancer Research UK santa hat. You’ll still receive an online Giving Page, be able to join the challenge group and take part. Sign up to the challenge If you have any further questions, email supporter.services@cancer.org.uk or call 0300 1231022 (lines open 8am–8pm, Monday to Friday and 9am–5pm at weekends)
You will receive an online Giving Page once you've registered here.
It's then easy to share the page with your friends and family to gather sponsorship for your challenge.
We don’t set a fundraising target for participants, but we recommend that supporters set themselves a reasonable target of raising £150 or more
The first tip is to log in to your page and take a few minutes to personalise it. You can add a photo, update the 'My Story' section to share why raising funds for this cause is important to you.
Second tip is, if you're able to, kick-start the fundraising by adding your own donation to your Online giving page. It can often help to get things going - it's a bit like making sure your friends aren't the first guests at a party.
And the third and final tip is to share a post on your social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, anything you use) to tell people about your challenge - and make sure to share the link to your Online giving page in the post.
Remember, any donation can make a difference. As little as £3 could buy a pair of safety goggles to keep our scientists safe while they conduct their cutting-edge experiments.
Let us know how you get on by posting on the group, and we can offer further help if you want it. You've got this!
£5 could buy 100 plastic test tubes, which are the understated tools of any experiment.
£12 could buy a microscope bulb, which allow our scientists to see cells in detail, watching cancer's every move so we can beat it sooner.
£15 could buy agarose gel, which is a vital component for a technique that scientists use to measure the length of pieces of DNA.
£20 could buy antibiotics to keep the cells studied by our scientists free from infections.
Yes absolutely. You can raise your fundraising target on your online Giving Page at any time. Supporters who increase their fundraising target raise an average of 51% more than those who don’t, so why not head over to your page and raise yours?
Gift Aid is a tax relief allowing UK charities to reclaim an extra 25% on every eligible donation made by a UK taxpayer. This means Cancer Research UK can claim an extra 25p for every £1 donated, without it costing you or your sponsors an extra penny. If the donation is eligible for Gift Aid, sponsors need to fill out the sponsor form, following the guidelines at the top of the page.
We have plenty of fundraising materials and ideas to help you raise donations. Visit our fundraising hub for everything you need for your challenge.
This challenge is a fundraising initiative specifically developed by us, therefore all money raised must go solely to Cancer Research UK.
If you're happy to keep the page online, but want to stop taking donations, you can change the closing date of your page.
Here’s how:
You'll need to go to your Giving Page (make sure you're logged in) and scroll down and select ‘Page settings’.
Then select ‘Page closure date’ – you can choose to close the page now or set a future date to close your page.
Tap ‘Save’ for the changes to come into effect – people can still view a closed page but can’t donate to it.
You can reopen a closed page by selecting ‘Keep your page open indefinitely’.
Please note, you don't need to close your page for the money you have raised to transfer to Cancer Research UK. This happens automatically when each donation is made.
If you'd like to take the page off the site completely, you can email us at OnlineFundraisingQueries@cancer.org.uk and we'll get that sorted for you.
By default, Giving Pages stay open indefinitely unless you set a date to close your page.
If you selected a date for your fundraising page to close and would like to extend this closure date follow these instructions.
Find the Giving Page you're looking for by searching for the:
Full name of the fundraiser
Email of the fundraiser
Find your own or your friend’s online Giving Page.
If you need any further support on questions related to online Giving Pages, please contact OnlineFundraisingQueries@cancer.org.uk
For all other questions, please contact our Supporter Services team, who'd be happy to help.
Everything you need to hit your goals, including a fundraising pack, challenge calendar and shareable social badges.
