10 festive season swims supporting UK good causes
Melanie May | 4 January 2024 | News
Every Christmas and New Year, hardy souls around the country take a cold sea dip, often to raise funds for local charities. Here’s 10 of the charity swims that took place this festive season supporting a multitude of good causes.
Hunstanton Christmas Day Swim
The Hunstanton Christmas Day Swim dates back to 1954 and is organised by Hunstanton and District Round Table. The swim focuses on supporting local charities, and this time saw 160 people take part in fancy dress, cheered on by some 2,000. Charities supported included The Norfolk Hospice Tapping House, King’s Lynn Night Shelter, Autism West Norfolk, NCI Brancaster, West Norfolk Deaf Association, and Hunstanton Primary School.
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Porthcawl Christmas Morning Swim
The 58th annual Porthcawl Christmas Morning Swim took place on Christmas Day. The sold out event saw every swimmer receive a mug, sponsored by Noah Recycling, and charities supported included headline charity Kidney Wales, Cancer Research Wales, Family Fund and more.
Southwold Christmas Day Swim
The Southwold Christmas Day Swim, organised by Blyth Valley Rotary, has so far raised £4687.75 for its chosen charities. Southwold RNLI, Sole Bay Care Fund and SERV Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Blood Bikes.
Tenby Boxing Day Swim
This event takes place on Tenby’s North Beach on Boxing Day morning and collects donations to give to a number of charities. In 2023, they included Tenby RNLI, Tenby Surflink, Tenby Sea Cadets, St John’s Ambulance Wales – people also have the option of raising funds for a charity of their choice. 1,050 swimmers took part. There’s also a fancy dress parade, and swimmers get a medal.
Secret World Wildlife Rescue New Year’s Day Dip
Secret World Wildlife Rescue asks people to join its New Year’s Day Dip in Clevedon Marine Lake, near Bristol. People can sign up for free and raise sponsorship money, or pay a £5 registration fee to take part.
RNLI Porthdinllaen Trochfa Dydd Calan/New Year’s Day Dip 2024
Taking place at Morfa Nefyn, Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales, this New Year’s Day Dip raises funds for RNLI Porthdinllaen.
Dip for CLIC
The annual Cornwall event Dip for CLIC took place for 10th time this year and saw more than 500 swimmers take part at Newquay Harbour, raising money for Young Lives vs Cancer. So far it has raised £4,500 for the charity.
Lyme Lunge
The annual Lyme Lunge is a fancy dress swim which takes place on New Year’s Day and sees hundreds take part. Organised by Lyme Regis Rotary Club, this year’s main beneficiaries are The Alzheimer’s Society and Asthma + Lung UK alongside Rotary charities.
St Margaret’s Hospice New Year’s Day Dip
Two hundred people took a New Year’s Day Dip at Minehead to raise funds for St Margaret’s Hospice. The event is annual, and this year aims to raise £10,000 to pay for 100 specialist community nurses.
Sheringham New Year’s Day Dip
The New Year’s Day Dip at Sheringham in Norfolk saw the event return for the first time since pre-pandemic. Around 400 people took part, and the event raised around £2,000, which will be shared between the RNLI and other local charities.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.