FAQs

Join thousands of others who are swimming 5km (5000 metres) over the month of May to raise money to support children and young people with cancer.  How you take on the challenge is up to you, whether you swim a little everyday in the local pool or lido or save it up for a big swim once a week. 

Signing up is simple.

1. Sign up here to request your free swim hat and set up your fundraiser
2. Once you have signed up you’ll receive your own fundraising page
3. Share, share, share.  Make sure to tell everyone you know that you are taking on the challenge and ask them to sponsor you
4. Get fundraising
5. Swim 5k in May
6. Support children and young people with cancer

You will receive a handy printed tracker with your swim hat. You can also find this in the Resources tab.  You can add your distance manually to your fundraising page. Alternatively if you have a fitness tracker app you can sync this to your fundraiser.

Most local pools are 25 metres, therefore you need to do 200 lengths in May.

We have added a handy table in the resources for you to see how many lengths it would take in a variety of different sized pools to complete your 5k.

We are here with you every step of the way to help you complete the challenge. We have a support team on hand to give advice and top tips on completing the challenges and reaching you fundraising target. 

However if you aren’t able to complete the full challenge, please don’t worry, just make sure to let your sponsors know. If you need any advice or support on completing the challenge please email virtualchallenges@younglivesvscancer.org.uk

This is your challenge, your way! We want you to take part in a way that works best for you. You can increase of reduce the distance and can change the dates if May doesn’t work for you.

Children under 18 years of age are welcome to take part in the challenge, but must be registered by a parent or guardian; and be accompanied by a responsible adult during their participation in the challenge. 

You must be over 18 to set up a fundraiser.

Yes, of course! The more the merrier. Just share a link and ask them to join.

Yes – you can join from anywhere. Unfortunately we aren’t able to post out fundraising packs internationally, but you can have all you need in the Resources tab. You will still be a vital part of Team Young Lives.

We send fundraising packs out twice a week but sometimes they can take 10-14 working days to arrive. If you pack has still not arrived please contact virtualchallenges@younglivesvscancer.org.uk

If you have any questions or queries, please contact us at virtualchallenges@younglivesvscancer.org.uk

You will automatically be set up with a fundraiser when you sign up. You can also select to set up a Facebook Fundraiser and connect it to your main fundraising page. These are the easiest ways to collect your sponsorship. All donations come directly to Young Lives vs Cancer so you don’t have to worry about admin or bank transfers.

You can also fundraise offline. You will also receive a Young Lives vs Cancer sponsorship form with your swim hat. This can also be found in the Resources tab. To pay this in deposit your sponsorship into your own bank account and then pay it directly onto your fundraising page. Alternatively there are handy instructions on the form of how to pay this in on our website.

We simply just ask everyone to raise as much as they can to support children and young people with cancer. The target is automatically set to £150 as people with higher targets on their pages raise the most.  However there is no commitment to raise this.