Lancaster wild swimmer braves icy depths to raise money for cancer charity

Ann Williams has spent the last 30 days doing a sponsored cold water dip every day to raise money for CancerCare.

Her dips have included swimming at Capernwray Diving Lake near Carnforth and Buttermere in the Lake District as well as immersing herself in the cold water therapy pod she has at her home.

Ann submerged herself for average of 10 minutes for each dip and said the experience made her feel “absolutely fantastic” and she always left the water feeling renewed and full of vitality.

“For those 10 minutes I find I don’t think about anything other than the cold water and I find it completely recalibrates my mind," she said.

"I come out feeling energised and ready for anything!”

Over the month of her challenge, Ann said that no matter how busy she got she always managed to find time to either take a short trip to the lake or jump in her cold water pod.

“It became really important part of my life and always made sure I always got a dip in as if I didn’t, I would be missing out on something that I knew would make me feel great,” said Ann.

Ann is a former client of CancerCare after experiencing a cancer diagnosis 23 years ago. She said her fundraiser was a way of giving something back to the charity that helped her with therapy at a very difficult time in her life.

“At the time, CancerCare was an incredible place for me. Somewhere I could go, put my wig on the back of the chair and not think about everything that was going on,” said Ann.

The charity, which provides free professional therapy to people affected by cancer and bereavement, is using Ann’s exploits to launch its Dare2Dip Every Day campaign which is encouraging others to jump in cold water throughout October to raise money for CancerCare.

There are loads of ways you could be doing it – as part of a group, with your family or on your own!

For more information visit http://cancercare.org.uk/news-and-events/dare2dip-every-day