Swimmers are being asked to take the plunge in Inchydoney beach on Christmas Day for a worthy cause.

Organiser Laurie Hayes has set up a fundraising drive called the Dunmanway Christmas Swim where all funds raised go directly to the Dunmanway Day Unit in Cork University Hospital (CUH), where so many people very close to our hearts receive cancer treatment.

“We are welcoming all new and old swimmers to come join us on Christmas morning in Inchydoney Beach,” said Laurie. 

“We will meet at 10.30am sharp at the lower car park and the swim will commence at 11am. This is a really special tradition for a lot of us and we would only love to share it with many more of you.” 

A goal of €2,000 has already been surpassed, so a new target of €4,000 has been set up. “We have been blown away by the support so far and can’t thank you all enough for the interest and donations we have received to date,” said Laurie.

Sponsorship cards have been distributed in the past few weeks at different locations but donations can be made online before and after the big day at Gofundme.com. Simply search for Dunmanway Day Unit CUH Christmas Swim.

“We have been blessed with some local sponsorship for T-shirts this year for the swim. A massive thanks to Keohane Readymix , Cahalane Brothers Ltd. and Buckley Financial who have ever so kindly sponsored our T-shirts for all the swimmers taking part this year.

“We wanted to not only give an extra layer to all of you swimmers for the big dip but also wanted to keep everyone together and remember who we are helping on such a lovely morning. We couldn’t do any of this without our fantastic community. We really can’t thank you all enough,” added Laurie.