This challenge asks you to swim 8 kilometres across the month of March.

You can split this out however you like to help you hit your target, and you can change the challenge to whatever works for you - make it harder or easier!

It’s free to take part in Swim 8km in March and easy to sign up:

1. Sign up here to request your free swim hat and t-shirt.

2. Once you sign up, you will receive your own fundraising page too. You can personalise this page to make it uniquely yours!

3. Share the link to your fundraising page with all your friends, family and colleagues. Tell them about your challenge and ask them to sponsor you.

4. Swim 8km throughout March and share regular updates.

5. Feel a huge sense of pride and joy for completing the challenge!

With it being a personal challenge, you can alter the challenge as needed as we understand that it’s not always possible to complete the challenge as planned. We want you to take part in whatever way works best for you, whether you reduce or increase the distance you cover or give yourself a different time frame to complete it within.

You aren’t required to let us know, unless you wish to, but it’s best to let your supporters know by posting an update on your page.

Please note, the distance leader board and badges are set to specific distances and run between 1 - 31 March. If you hit milestones outside these dates, you can request these badges by emailing facebookchallenge@gosh.org

Please visit the Resources tab within My Dashboard to find your swim tracker to keep count of your activity. We will also send a copy of your tracker in the post with your swim hat and t-shirt.

You can also add your lengths to your fundraising page automatically by syncing up your Strava, Garmin or Fitbit app in your Dashboard. Or if you would prefer, you can add your swim lengths manually instead.

The most important action to take is posting regular updates on your challenge progress on your social media channels and fundraising page so your friends and family can see how hard you're pushing yourself!

Yes! Swim 8km is a family-friendly challenge and perfect for half-term. Children can complete the distance at their own pace, with adult supervision.

That’s completely fine. Children can set a shorter distance that feels achievable for them – the most important thing is that they have fun while taking part.

Yes – children should always be supervised by an adult when swimming, whether at a pool or elsewhere.

Definitely! Lots of supporters like to dress up to make their swim extra special – just make sure costumes are safe and don’t restrict movement in the water.

There is no fundraising target for this challenge, but we ask everyone to raise as much as they can.

You'll see that your page is automatically created with the target of £223, which could fund a Play worker and everything they need to prepare art and craft packs for creative play on the ward each day.

You can change your fundraising target at any time so you're welcome to set your own personal goal.

Yes! Once you sign up to Swim 8km in March, you will receive your very own fundraising page, which you can personalise with your story, updates and pictures.

From your fundraising dashboard, you can also invite friends and family to join you, send out messages asking for support and access our Swim 8km in March resources.

Yes, you can fundraise offline as well as online. You can download a sponsorship form within the Resources tab of your fundraising dashboard.

To pay in your offline donations, you can either:

• Pay it directly onto your fundraising page.
  
  
• Pay online using our website form. Please select Facebook Fundraiser to then click Swim 8km in March in the list of events.
  
  
• Call us on 020 3841 3131 to pay over the phone. Be sure to mention Swim 8km in October!

Yes, we can arrange this for you. Please email us at facebookchallenge@gosh.org and we can make sure this sorted for you.

If you would like to talk to us about a specific area you would like to fundraise for, please email us at facebookchallenge@gosh.org and we can talk you through your options.

All the amazing fundraising you do will go towards helping seriously ill children from around the UK being treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Your fundraising will help to fund pioneering research into life-changing treatments, state-of-the-art technology that helps save young lives, vital patient family support services and wellbeing services for GOSH’s superhero staff.

Money raised will also go towards the creation of new child-focused surroundings at the hospital to help children feel safe and calm during their appointments and treatments.

Yes, you can either create a team page or just use one fundraising page together. It’s a great way to combine your efforts and hit your target as a family.

After registering, you should receive a welcome email from us within a few minutes, so we're sorry that you haven’t received this.

Please check your junk/spam folder as it can sometimes end up in here by mistake. If it isn’t there, please email us at facebookchallenge@gosh.org with your full name and we can resend this to you. 

T-shirts and swim hats are posted in batches every Tuesday and Friday throughout February and March. Please allow up to ten working days from registering for your T-shirt to arrive. Postal delays are still happening in some areas, so thank you for your patience.

If your T-shirt has not arrived, please allow up to seven days for it to be dispatched and up to two weeks for delivery. We will not be sending replacement T-shirts until 17 March , as almost all original orders do eventually arrive, even if slightly later than expected.

If your T-shirt has not arrived by 11 March, please email facebookchallenge@gosh.org