An intrepid group of male cold-water swimmers are poised to complete the marathon task of swimming in an icy Belfast river for 365 days in a row as a tribute to the father of one of their members who died from a rare form of brain cancer.
The Dunmurry Dippers will complete the challenge on December 3 after raising more than £1,000 in honour of Tom Gilgunn, who died of glioblastoma in May. Peter Gilgunn started the cold-water swims after his father was diagnosed with cancer in November 2021.
He decided to start fundraising for the little-known form of the disease and so far, the group has raised more than £1,000 for The Brain Tumour Charity doing their daily early morning swims.
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Peter said: "My father was given three months to live. To say we were gobsmacked and distraught is an understatement. The next six months saw him fight hard through a number of treatments but ultimately and unsurprisingly he passed away on May 9 2022.
"A tough ride for us all and tough enough since then. Around that time I was cold water dipping every now and then - and through incessant research about glioblastoma I found it receives less than 1% of all funding and wanted to do something to help with the poor funding and profile glioblastoma has - and hence the daily dip was born."
The six strong group swim every day at a beautiful spot in the Colin River in Dunmurry. Their exploits have gone viral on social media and have even captured the imagination of global swimwear company Speedo, who have asked to meet them.
Peter had not told his father about the charity drive during his illness but said Tom would have been proud of the club’s achievement.
When Peter found out about his father’s illness he did a lot of research and discovered that it receives very little funding and survival rates are below one per cent.
"My dad was a very measured, quietly spoken man but he would have seen it as a great thing to do. He was always in favour of putting yourself out there and giving things a go," he added.
“I was determined to raise awareness of this terrible disease and hopefully encourage more funding into finding a cure."
The club will be holding a special celebration event at Colin River at 9am on December 3 and have invited other members of the cold-water swimming community to join them.
Peter said their activity has also had the benefit of focusing on men’s mental health, as cold-water swimming is beneficial both mentally and physically. One of their regular themes is ‘Hugs Friday’ where they all wish each other the best for the week ahead, showing it is okay for men to reach out to each other and show their emotions.
“When I first got into it I thought it would be very difficult and a real physical and mental challenge but I didn’t realise that there would be so much camaraderie. The wee group has morphed into a Men’s Shed,” Peter added.
The Dunmurry Dippers’ Facebook Page has hundreds of followers and many of their supporters on social media have turned up to meet or even swim with the group during their early morning dips. The supporters come from all over NI and recently 30 people turned up just to get their photos taken with them.
For more information about the Dunmurry Dippers and their recent charity challenge visit here.
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