Important health and safety tips for swimming 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 swim 20k in whatever way they choose over the month of June.
Once you’ve signed up, join the Facebook group dedicated to this challenge. Once you're in, you can complete a form to get your free Cancer Research UK t-shirt, 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 Swim 20k in June 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.
Can under 18s take part? If they can, how should under 18s register and does this have to be with their guardian’s consent?
The minimum age for participation is 18. Anyone under this age shouldn’t take part in the Swim 20k in June 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 Swim 20k in June 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.
Once you’ve created your team, you can either split the kilometres up between the group or you can each complete 20k across the month.
The challenge is to complete 20k in the month of June. You can choose to break this down into 5k a week, or smaller swims multiple times a week. To put this into perspective, 5k = 200 x 25m lengths, or 100 x 50m lengths. There are lots of ways to complete the challenge and raise money for our life-saving work:
Visit your local swimming baths or leisure centre
Check out a local lido
Try your local lake or loch
Take a dip in the sea
While we encourage everyone to complete this challenge in June, this is a personal challenge and you can start and finish at a time that’s convenient for you. You can make up your kilometres at any point of the month and continue the challenge into July.
Don’t worry! You can make up your kilometres 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 try your best to complete as much of the challenge as you can. Whether that’s completing the whole 20k in June 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.
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, photos and your online Giving Page throughout June the more updates the better. Supporters who regularly post about their progress raise 40% more on average.
It’s important you’re well prepared for your swim, especially if you haven't swum for a while. Here’s some equipment you might want to consider:
Swimsuit/swim shorts
Goggles
Sunscreen
Ear plugs
Nose clip
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.
If you’re not sure if the weather will cause sunburn/skin damage, check the Met Office UV forecast.
If you're swimming outside, use plenty of sunscreen with SPF 15+ and a 4 or 5 star rating, which will sufficiently protect your skin.
Apply it everywhere, not just to exposed skin, and apply regularly during and after your swim.
Find more information about staying safe in the sun.
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.
Strava and Fitbit are free apps that will allow you to track your swimming distance. If you’re using a tracking device, make sure it’s waterproof!
Find out how to connect your Giving Page to Strava
Find out how to connect your Giving Page to Fitbit
Please note: Sometimes there’s a 48-hour lag in the Strava/Fitbit data being updated. If your kilometres still aren't showing, disconnect and reconnect to do a hard reset and this will add any kilometres already on the Strava account.
Complete this form to receive your free t-shirt 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 an item. You’ll still receive an online Giving Page, be able to join the challenge group and take part! 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).
Unfortunately, returning Cancer Research UK t-shirts comes at a cost to us, therefore, we ask that you keep hold of it for personal use (for example bed, gym, give to a friend, etc).
Sending out your Cancer Research UK t-shirts comes at a cost to Cancer Research UK so please only order one Cancer Research UK t-shirt per fundraiser to ensure as much money goes towards our life-saving research as possible. We ask for everyone requesting a Cancer Research UK t-shirt that they donate something to their fundraising page.
For this challenge, if you have raised at least £150 you will be sent a medal. You’ll also be sent a certificate in your completion email at the end of your challenge. You can also access downloadable digital badges to shout about your achievement on social media.
Using our Online Fundraising Platform is the easiest way to raise money. You will receive an online Giving Page once you’ve registered 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, but we recommend that supporters set themselves a reasonable target of raising £150 or more.
This challenge is a fundraising initiative specifically developed by Cancer Research UK, and therefore all fundraising must go solely to the charity.
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!
We have plenty of fundraising materials and ideas to help you raise life-saving donations. Visit our fundraising hub for everything you need for your challenge.
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. For a donation to be eligible for Gift Aid, sponsors need to fill out the sponsorship form following the instructions at the top of the page.
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!
Grab your fundraising pack, challenge calendar, shareable social media badges and more to help you reach your fundraising goals.
