Children with Cancer UK, the UK’s leading national cancer charity dedicated to fighting the injustice of cancer in children and young people, is to become the headline partner of Swim Serpentine, the biggest single day open water swimming event in the country, for the next three years (up to and including the 2021 event).
The first Children with Cancer UK Swim Serpentine, organised by London Marathon Events Ltd, will take place on Saturday 21 September 2019. The day will feature open water swimming events in the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park over a range of distances, including ½ mile, one mile, two miles, six miles and a free Wellness Festival in Hyde Park.
Swim Serpentine, organised by London Marathon Events Ltd, was first held in 2016 and has rapidly grown to become the UK’s top single day open water swimming event with more than 6,000 entries for the 2018 event.
Founded in 1988, Children with Cancer UK actively raises and invests money for vital specialist research to improve survival rates and the quality of survival in young cancer patients and to find ways to prevent cancer in the future. Every year it invests more than £4 million in research into childhood cancers, as well as raising awareness and providing funding for practical support for young cancer patients and their families.
Emily Roff, Senior Sports & Community Manager at Children with Cancer UK, said:
We are delighted to partner with Swim Serpentine – organised by London Marathon Events Ltd – for the first time in 2019. Mass participation events are hugely important to us, generating £4.8million in 2018. We hope that the partnership will raise much needed awareness of our life-saving research and welfare projects supporting young cancer patients and keeping their families together.
Hugh Brasher, Event Director of London Marathon Events Ltd, said:
We are delighted to be creating this innovative partnership with Children with Cancer UK to raise funds and awareness for their vital work. We have a very longstanding working relationship with Children with Cancer UK and we are proud to have helped them to raise £40 million through the London Marathon since the year 2000.
Entries for Children with Cancer UK Swim Serpentine will open from 10am on the morning of Monday 4 February at www.swimserpentine.co.uk.
Half mile: entry fee £25.00 (minimum age 12 on 21 September 2019)
One mile: entry fee £42.00 (minimum age 16)
Two miles: entry fee £54.00 (minimum age 16)
Six miles: entry fee £150 (minimum age 16)
In addition, there is the opportunity for participants to complete a leg of the London Classics by swimming two miles at Children with Cancer UK Swim Serpentine. Read more about the London Classics, the ultimate mass participation challenge in the UK at www.thelondonclassics.co.uk
ENDS
Notes to Editors
- Swim Serpentine, organised by London Marathon Events Ltd, was first held in 2016 and is now the largest single day open water swimming event in the UK with more than 6,000 entries for the 2018 event. Find out more at swimserpentine.co.uk
- The London Marathon Charitable Trust was founded in 1981 by the late Chris Brasher and John Disley, who created the London Marathon. Their vision enabled the surplus from the London Marathon, and future events organised by London Marathon Events Ltd, to be gifted to The Trust in perpetuity. Since 1981, the London Marathon Charitable Trust has awarded grants totalling more than £77 million to 1,330+ organisations in London and beyond. Find out more at lmct.org.uk
- Children with Cancer UK is the leading national children’s charity dedicated to research into cancer in children and young people. Inaugurated in 1988, the charity funds life-saving research to develop kinder, more effective treatments for young patients, as well as to take forward our understanding of the causes and prevention of childhood cancer. Children with Cancer UK’s welfare work funds accommodation homes near hospitals across the country, and trips for families away from the hospital ward. Through this work, we aim to help more children with cancer to ring their end of treatment bell and keep their families together. Find out more at http://childrenwithcancer.org.uk
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