Hundreds take part in Christmas day dip, raising over £40,000 for Suffolk charity
The annual Christmas Day Dip returned with a splash
Last updated 26th Dec 2024
Hundreds of people in Suffolk have taken part in a Christmas day dip, all to raise money for a local charity.
A record-breaking amount of people jumped into the North Sea at Felixstowe Beach yesterday morning to raise vital funds for St Elizabeth Hospice at their annual Christmas Day Dip.
The charity's now revealed the 20th anniversary of the event raised over £40,000 in total, with over 650 'dippers' taking part.
Donations are expected to continue throughout this week, pushing the total even higher.
We spoke to James Fox-Golding, from the charity's Ipswich branch, who told us it's been a difficult year for charities across the county.
He says events like this are crucial to the hospice's survival: "As a hospice, we are a charity, we don't get NHS funding, so if we don't do things like this, we don't make the money so we can't go out and help the community and the 5000 people we go out and help every year...
"It takes us £12million a year to run all the services that we do at the hospice and three quarters of that we raise ourselves from generous communities, wills and events like this...
"We're really lucky here in Ipswich, with the support that we get the community still really digs deep into their pockets.
"We can't thank them enough to help us keep going and help the community."
James then explained the money will go into the care they are able to provide to the public: "This will help our nurses go out - 70% of people we look after, we actually do in their own homes as well as out inpatient unit, our clinical teams, our one call support phone line. Anybody can ring up at any point and ask questions which are answered by a specialist."
James told us he has first experience with using the service, which is why this means so much to him: "I have used the services of the hospice. I became a volunteer and now I am a full-time employee giving back to the charity that means the world to me.
"It made such a difference to me, I am sure so many other people would say the work they do is incredible and life-changing."
One brave dipper who took the plunge for St Elizabeth Hospice was Ross Dowsing, who was raising funds for the charity in memory of his mum, Heather, who received support from the hospice in 2023 before her death.
He said: “What a fantastic morning with a brilliant atmosphere. The water was very cold but also refreshing – it certainly woke me up!
“I am so proud to support the hospice in any way I can. The whole charity is amazing, and they gave such brilliant, compassionate care to my mum and our whole family. We can never thank them enough, but through taking part in fundraising events like the dip, we hope others too can benefit from the hospice’s services in our local community.”