Birthday suitbathers raise cancer funds

It might not be the weather for stripping off, but hundreds splashed about in the sea yesterday to raise funds to fight cancer and remember loved ones.

One family cherished memories of a teenage daughter who wanted to join the nationwide Dip in the Nip but was too ill to do it last year and died before this year’s event.

Up to 600 people — rain-lashed in the north-west and sun-splashed in the other three centres — joined in a record-breaking attempt to raise more than €100,000.

Some wore zany hats, other crazy scarves and there was at least one who went totally nude on a surf-board.

At Dunmoran Strand, Co Sligo, Brendan and Marie Lowry and their son Kevin, admitted they were quite emotional.

They were in the water for 18-year-old daughter Amy who died from cancer last August.

Marie, from Ballymote, said: “During Amy’s illness people in the hospital were so good so every time something related to cancer comes up you feel you want to be involved.

“There were branches of trees on the beach especially left there so campaigners could add names if they wished.

“That was quite emotional for us. Amy wanted to take part in last year’s dip in the nip but she became too ill to do it. She died less than two months after it.

“We left a message that we knew Amy wanted to do it so this year we did it for her. Every day we think of her.”

Marie added that the funds raised in her dip were intended for Sligo oncology unit. She said: “When you see what they do there you forget about inhibitions when you want to race naked into the water in front of other people.”

It was Sligo’s fourth Dip in the Nip but it was the first time the campaign extended to other centres – Gormanstown in Meath, Pilmore Beach, Youghal, in Cork, and White Strand in Doonbeg in Clare.

American Jeff Seibert, who lives at Glencar, Co. Leitrim, was in the Sligo dip for the second successive year. He did it for his brother’s wife who is based in Connecticut and is fighting cancer for the third time.

Jeff, whose first son was born earlier this year to join his older sister, said: “The Dip in the Nip is a great organisation and Maire Garvey, its leader, is a fantastic lady. I’m so glad to have two healthy children that I pray they never get cancer.”

Ms Garvey said there were 250 in the Sligo dip, 140 in Meath, 110 in Cork and 70 in Clare.

She said: “We hope to raise more than €100,000 to beat the €80,000 raised by 354 people in Sligo last year.”