2500 Women Strip to Take Dip in Irish Sea, Creates New Guinness World Record

Over 2,500 women broke the Guinness world record by skinny dipping in a sea at the Republic of Ireland. Women of all age groups flocked at a beach in County Wicklow in Ireland on Saturday. Known as Strip and Dip the annual event was in its sixth year. The dips were to raise funds for an Irish children's cancer charity Aoibheann's Pink Tie. Most of those who participated in the dip were cancer survivors. The mass nude dips raised over 2,75,000 Euros (approx 27 crores) for the charity.

Strip and Dip was launched by breast cancer survivor Deirdre Featherstone. The charity was set up in 2010 by Mick Rochford and Jimmy Norman, after Jimmy's daughter, Aoibheann died from cancer when she was eight years old. Reportedly, the sea temperature was 12 degree Celsius when the women took the dips.

Evening Standard quoted Featherstone as saying, "I thought we might get 1,500 but it just got bigger and bigger. The whole beach was just awash with us – it was just incredible. Half the people who were there either had cancer or were affected by cancer or were supporting somebody or remembering someone who had cancer – every woman had their own little story of why they did it."

Featherstone decided to launch the event just six weeks after undergoing a mastectomy. The inaugural swim was attended by 60 people which grew to 200 the next year. This year's event was a successful one with its breaking record for the largest mass skinny dip.  The previous record was created by them in Perth, Australia where 786 people participated.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 11, 2018 09:43 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).