We are asking supporters to commit to reading every day throughout November while raising money for Cancer Research UK. You can choose what you read and how much you read each day.
While we encourage everyone to complete this challenge throughout the month of November, this is a personal challenge and you can start and finish at a time that’s convenient for you.
If November is too busy or you need more time, you can absolutely continue your reading into December. What matters most is that you enjoy the process and support Cancer Research UK in your own way.
Read whatever you enjoy and have access to. You could try out a new book – don’t forget we sell second-hand books in our charity shops! Find your nearest shop here. You could also read the digital version of the book on your kindle or smartphone. If you prefer printed materials, you could read a newspaper or magazine each day. You could also consider reading poems, comic books, blogs, educational papers, scripts.
That’s completely up to you! Read as little or as much as you like – the most important part is that you have read something each day in November.
You can use apps such as GoodReads or The StoryGraph to track your reading. Alternatively, you could write your progress down in a diary or the notes app on your phone.
Yes, listening to audiobooks count! You could listen to a few minutes a day at a convenient moment to you. To track your audiobook listening, some audiobooks track your daily/monthly minutes automatically, but it's worth testing this out before starting the challenge!
Once you have signed up, join the Facebook Group dedicated to this challenge.
Yes! If you don’t have Facebook, you can set up a Cancer Research UK online Giving Page here and collect sponsorship for your Read Every Day in November 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.
Don’t worry! You can make up your reading on another day or extend your challenge into the following month if needed. Complete the challenge in a way that suits you.
The only thing that matters is that you challenge yourself and try your best to complete as much of the challenge as you can. Whether that’s completing your reading challenge in November or not, the money that you fundraise through participating will allow Cancer Research UK to continue to fund life-saving research and we can’t thank you enough.
Nope — we trust you! You don’t need to submit any proof to us that you’ve completed your reading challenge. This is a personal challenge, and it’s all about having fun, getting creative, and supporting a great cause.
That said, keeping your friends and family updated is really important — not only does it keep them engaged, but participants who regularly share their progress tend to raise up to 40% more! So be sure to post photos, videos, and updates on your online Giving Page throughout November.
We also encourage you to share your journey in the challenge group. Whatever you’re reading, we’d love to hear about your progress.
Unfortunately, medals come at a large cost to the charity so we will not be sending these out. However, we will send all participants a certificate at the end of the challenge in their completion email. You can also access downloadable digital badges to shout about your achievement on social media.
Yes, under 18s can take part in this challenge, but we do not market to them and any third-party platform forum (e.g. a Facebook forum) is only available to over 18s. If under 18s are taking part, their parent/guardian must consent to the child’s participation, supervise the challenge, and accept responsibility for complying with the challenge rules. Currently we are unable to accept registrations for a child, so the child’s parent/guardian have to register on the child’s behalf. Similarly, if a child wants to raise money online and/or join a forum, the child’s parent/guardian must register for an online fundraising page and/or join the forum on the child’s behalf.
Participants must register as individuals but can take on the challenge in a team. To raise money together, you can set up a Team Giving Page once you’ve registered and received your individual pages. To do this visit our Fundraising as a team page here and follow the steps below:
To set up a team:
All your team will need to sign up to the Read Every Day in November Challenge so they each have their 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!
To receive your free tote bag, simply complete the sign up form here.
During registration, we offer the option for people to opt out of being sent a tote bag should they not want one for the challenge. When filling out the sign-up form, simply select ‘no’ where it asks if you’d like to receive a tote bag; you’ll still receive an Online Giving Page, be able to join the challenge group, and take part!
To sign up to the challenge, please visit the sign up page here.
If you have any further questions please email supporter.services@cancer.org.uk or call 0300 1231022 (lines open 08:00 – 20:00 Monday to Friday and, 09:00 – 17:00 at weekends)
Sending out your tote bag comes at a cost to Cancer Research UK so please only order one tote bag per fundraiser to ensure as much money goes towards our life-saving research as possible. We ask for everyone requesting a tote bag that they donate something to their fundraising page.
Using our Online Fundraising Platform is the easiest way to raise money. You will receive a online Giving Page once you’ve completed the challenge sign up form here.
You can then 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.
We have plenty of fundraising tools and ideas to help you raise life-saving donations. Access our fundraising hub for everything you need for the challenge.
This challenge is a fundraising initiative specifically developed by Cancer Research UK, and therefore all fundraising must go solely to the charity.
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.
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 £4 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 to help carry out cancer-fighting experiments.
£12 could buy a replacement bulb for a microscope used by our scientists.
£15 could buy agarose gel, which is a vital component for a technique 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!
If you're happy to keep the page online, but want to stop taking donations, you can change the closing date of your page.
How to close an online Giving Page:
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!
Grab your fundraising pack, challenge calendar, shareable social media badges and more to help you reach your fundraising goals.
