A week or so ago, I was at the launch of the 50:50 Group, a voluntary organisation set up to work towards gender parity in Irish politics by the year 2020. There were a number of speakers drawn from various groups around the country which included  Fiona Buckley, the co-founder of 50:50; Eilish Corcoran, The Womens Manifesto Project in Longford; Helen Rochford Brennan of the Western Development Commission, to name but a few – all drawn from different backgrounds and with different perspectives on the question of gender parity in Irish politics.

But this is not a blog about politics. The reason I mention it is because of something one of the speakers said, and which struck a chord among many of the audience, mostly female. The speaker commented that she was ‘looking at a group of brilliant women, any of whom could stand for election in this country’. A member of the audience responded that being referred to as ‘brilliant’ made her feel under pressure, and less likely to consider entering political life, for fear of not living up to expectation. There were murmurings of assent, and it was clear that nobody there was comfortable self-identifying as ‘brilliant’.

I thought about this afterwards. Very few people – male or female – self-identify as brilliant. Yet very often we will refer to others as brilliant, often for doing something that we are well capable of doing ourselves. Why? I know when I first started organising the Dip, the compliments and the plaudits made me uncomfortable. I would brush them aside with a comment that really, it wasn’t me who was brilliant/fabulous/marvellous, but rather the people doing the Dip. We know that Irish people are not the best at receiving compliments – we feel we’re asking for a belt around the back of the head if accept it as truth! But even to ourselves, we find it difficult to acknowledge when we do something well – we dismiss it with a wave of our hand and a brisk ‘it’s no big deal’.

So I started thinking about how we might start to acknowledge our own brilliance – what Marianne Williamson called our deepest fear.  Could we make a start by thinking of ourselves as ordinary, but acknowledging that something we have done might be extraordinary? Because I certainly think that doing the Dip in the Nip is something extraordinary for most of the people who do it, and all for very different reasons. To get naked with a bunch of strangers, and run into the North Atlantic – in IRELAND! – is truly extraordinary. We are a nation consumed by body hang-ups. We harbour a belief that because we are not tanned and toned like our mediterranean cousins (who may be tanned, but trust me, they’re not always toned) our bodies could not possibly be beautiful and therefore should be kept under wraps except in the privacy of our bedrooms.

For virtually all of the Dippers, their first Dip was the first time that they had ever skinny dipped, even alone. And many of them, unless they are doing another Dip, may never skinny dip with others again. And it doesn’t matter if they have the perfect body or if they bear the scars of cancer or any other disease. Divesting themselves of all clothing and running screaming and laughing into the sea with other imperfect bodies is to stretch comfort boundaries probably beyond anything any of them thought themselves capable of, and that takes real courage.

So, Dippers: if you cannot see your own extraordinariness, then at least take a bow for taking your courage in both hands and doing something extraordinary.

When I first had the idea of a skinny dip to raise money for cancer, before it became the Dip in the Nip, I had something quite simple in mind: it was going to be for breast cancer, and just for women. I thought perhaps – if I was lucky – I’d get about 50 women to do it, and perhaps we’d raise about €5,000. Instead, back in 2009, 180 brave women bared all, and between them raised just over €56,000.

Now, a mere three years later over 700 people have done a Dip, and between them have raised nearly €200,000 for various cancer projects. Men have joined in the fun, and the first Mens Dip for http://www.blueseptember.ie/ took place last September on Brittas Bay, and is set to become an annual event.

From the start, people asked if I would ever run a mixed one, and I thought – yes: one day. I didn’t think that day would come quite so quickly, but here it is! The first Valentines Dip in the Nip takes place on Sunday, 26th February, at around 8.30am on a beach in Galway Bay. I know your first thought is going to be – ‘Yikes!! How cold will that be??’ but the truth is – not much colder than in June, especially as we’ve had such a mild winter! And we’re going to do all we can to ensure that nobody will be at risk of hypothermia – there will be regular updates posted to our Facebook page.

Being a Valentines-themed Dip might suggest it is a couples only event – not so. It’s for anybody who is, shall we say, comfortable in mixed company! Perhaps you’ve often thought you’d like to be part of a Spencer Tunick photograph, perhaps a skinny dip is something to strike off your bucket list, or perhaps you just want to try something a little bit different and raise some much needed funds for a really great cause while you’re at it.

Hand in Hand is such a cause. It’s a relatively new childrens charity based in Galway, and services the entire west coast from Donegal to Limerick. All too often, children with cancer have to travel to Dublin for treatment on a regular basis, and in most cases, at least one parent needs to go with them. And often there will be other siblings, so while the child concerned is receiving treatment, some level of normality must be maintained for the others. So Hand in Hand came up with the brilliant idea (based on the founders own experience) of providing very practical, on-the-ground support to those families to minimise the impact of both the diagnosis and the frequent long-distance travel for treatment can have on family life. It also means that the parents can spend time with all of their children instead of having to worry about the day-to-day practicalities that can take up so much of our time. You can find out more about this wonderful charity here http://www.handinhand.ie/

Very often, when we hear talk of people going through illness, we forget that day-to-day life has to go on for them, and the things that can make a real difference are what might seem very small. My mother was ill recently (she’s 83): she lives alone, out in the country, and none of us live nearby. You know what she told us about? The home help who came in each morning to clear and set the fire. Something most of us wouldn’t generally think of when we think of a debilitating illness, but so important to my mother, who being old, feels the cold acutely.

And the same goes for families who are dealing with a cancer diagnosis in the family. If, for some reason, we want to help children with cancer, our minds would probably go straight away to their medical needs, and how we can ensure the best possible treatment. Some of us might be in a position to do little practical things to help, but many families – especially along the western seaboard – are isolated and mightn’t have the extended family network or even a nearby community to help. And that’s where Hand in Hand come in, and provide those often invisible supports that ensures those affected can focus on what matters most – helping their child get well.

You can register for the event here: https://www.eventelephant.com/valentinesdipinthenip and follow us on Facebook to keep up-to-date with plans and information.

Shortly after this years Midsummer Dip in the Nip, Ken O’Neill of Flanagan Ford got in touch to say that they wanted to support a local charity, and after some discussion, had decided that the Dip in the Nip was one they wanted to be associated with. Flanagan Fords’ aim is to be able to donate enough each year to cover the costs of running the Dip, and therefore help to ensure that all sponsorship raised by Dippers can go to the charities being supported. As the Dip is getting bigger (6 Dips already planned for next year, and charity status for the Dip in the Nip Foundation being sought) this was, of course, music to my ears.

We put our heads together and came up with a very simple idea which could go a long way towards achieving this aim. What I like most about it is that it is a win-win-win proposal: the Dip in the Nip benefits, you benefit, and Flanagan Ford benefit. Quite simply put, it is this:

Flanagan Ford will make a sizable donation to the Dip in the Nip for any Dipper, supporter of the Dip and their family and friends if they take a Life assurance or illness policy out through their office. In other words, anybody who approaches Flanagan Ford and takes out a life assurance policy, and mentions the Dip in the Nip will be responsible for a sizeable donation being made to the Dip.

This offer applies to everybody associated with the Dip whether they have no cover in place (and need it) to those who have cover in place but might be thinking of reviewing it. Everybody needs life assurance and/or illness cover (salary protection, also known as permanent health insurance PHI) at different stages in their life, but especially in the current climate. And if illness, especially cancer, has presented you with problems in getting different covers in the past, Flanagan Ford are in a position to advise you on your best options.  In many, if not most, cases, Life Insurance companies are eventually able to quote terms for life insurance after a person has been diagnosed with cancer. With some forms of cancer it is often possible to get terms within one or two years after diagnosis, albeit at an increased cost. With the most favourable cases, it is often possible that after seven or eight years, the insurance company won’t even charge any extra premium. The advice Ken received from an insurance underwriter recently was quite simple.  Provide Ken with some basic details ie: type of cancer, when diagnosed, the staging  (if you know this) and how long any chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment lasted.  Ken can then contact the insurance companies and get some advice on the likely outcome of any application.

Here is a link to their website that will give you an idea as to what types of protection policies and other financial products you might want to be considering at various times of your life http://www.flanaganford.ie/life_cycle

If you already have a policy in place, Flanagan Ford will review your policy to make sure that you are getting the best possible deal for your money. They will only recommend a new policy if they can save you  money or enhance your benefits for the same cost while at the same time  making a sizable donation to the Dip in the Nip Foundation – like I said earlier, win-win-win.

Flanagan Ford are the first – though I hope not the last – corporate sponsor of Dip in the Nip. Ken and his colleagues are incredibly supportive of it (to the extent that most of them are already signed up for next years Dip!) and are committed to the work that the Dip is trying to do. I’d like to be able to support them in turn.  There are many reasons for you to get in touch with them, and they would stress that as independent brokers they are able to offer the best advice to any Dippers, their friends and family, that might be considering how well they and their families are protected.

You can learn more about Flanagan Ford here http://flanaganford.ie/home and you can contact Ken O’Neill directly on 071-9159222.