Swimming: Daily dippers brave icy waters for charity cash

Icing on the charity cake - the group braved icy waters to raise cash for the work Crisis undertakes to help the homeless

A group of wild swimmers who took a daily plunge during the coldest January in a decade have raised more than £45,000 for a homelessness charity.

The Dales Dippers braved the elements and near-freezing rivers, streams and dykes in North and West Yorkshire to raise the cash.

Christina Cheney, from Ilkley, West Yorkshire, said her group had helped raise the money for the charity Crisis.

She said the original target of £10,000 had "gone through the roof".

• More stories across Yorkshire

Ms Cheney, a mental health social worker, said she was part of a group of about six braving the January plunges.

The mother of three young children said the third lockdown had made things "a bit difficult" but she had found places to swim closer to home.

"I've always been a wild swimmer and have swum in the river [Wharfe] since I moved back to Ilkley three years ago," she said.

"I've swam in the river at Ilkley and done quiet a lot of dips up on Ilkley Moor, going into a beck until I'm up to my neck."

Despite wild swimming providing "an antidote to children" stuck at home, Ms Cheney points out she has three winters of wild swimming under her belt.

"I wouldn't recommend it to people who are not used to it, this has been the coldest January any of us [swimmers] have ever come through."

Christina Cheney and her group have braved the harsh January weather to swim on open water to raise cash for the charity

Across Lancashire and the Lake District there are about 28 swimmers raising funds as part of the homeless charity's January Daily Dip.

Sonya Moorhead, from Todmorden, West Yorkshire, said lockdowns had spurred an interest in wild swimming.

She added: "The 'extra' they've put in is unreal, swimming in the dark, swimming on their own, finding a random ditch next to the house because it's eight o'clock at night and they haven't done it yet.

"And there's the bin dippers who literally couldn't get anywhere, so just got into their wheelie bins filled with ice!"

Christina Cheney from Ilkley is part of a group of wild swimmers who took the 'January Dip' to raise more than £45,000 for the charity Crisis

Jon Sparkes, the chief executive of Crisis, said: "We are so grateful to the January Daily Dip team and all our Icebreaker fundraisers for their extraordinary efforts in the harshest of winters.

"The money they have raised will help prevent and end homelessness across the country, while their passion will show people going through the hardest times that they are not forgotten."