Post-lockdown Covid surge sees charity swim event cancelled
Melanie May | 24 August 2020 | News
This year’s Children with Cancer UK Swim Serpentine event has been cancelled due to the surge in Covid-19 cases seen post-lockdown and the uncertain current situation.
It had been hoped that the event, scheduled for 26 September, would be able to ahead with the addition of social distancing measures. However, the cancellation was announced in a message to participants on 20 August. The message, from the Children with Cancer UK Swim Serpentine team, also said that the event would be back in 2021, and that this year’s participants would be contacted in October with an option to roll over their entry to next year’s event or to receive their entry fee back in full.
2019’s event was the fourth annual Swim Serpentine, with Children with Cancer UK its headline partner for the first time. A record number of more than 6,000 swimmers took part, and the charity was set to be headline partner again this year.
Commenting on the cancellation, Mark Brider CEO of Children with Cancer UK, said the charity was naturally disappointed that the cancellation was necessary and that the event had been expected to raise over £123,000 for it this year:
“Last year’s event was a spectacular success, however, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertain current situation, we reached the very difficult decision with event organisers not to proceed. I would like to thank all swimmers who signed up for the event, including the over 200 people who signed up in support of Children with Cancer UK. Children with Cancer UK Swim Serpentine will be back next year, and we look forward to seeing everyone at the event in 2021.
“The event is just one of many major fundraising events that have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the cancellation of such events we are looking at a 40% drop in income. This year the Children with Cancer UK Swim Serpentine was set to raise over £123,000 for research into the causes of childhood cancer and discovering kinder, less toxic treatments for the 12 children and young people diagnosed with cancer every day in the UK.
“The continued loss of income that we are experiencing highlights the urgent need for further Government support for charities such as ours. We need to ensure that the loss in income does not affect our ability to support lifesaving research projects. As only around 3% of cancer research funding currently goes towards research into childhood cancer – we would like to see the Government commit to providing a level of matched funding to preserve charity-funded research and ensure that the contributions of charities to the UK’s research base are retained.”
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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.