PEOPLE from all over the town are taking a dip into cold water for The Pink Place's 'Frozember' challenge.

The cancer charity that supports women and men across North Hampshire has begun its winter fundraiser, dubbed 'Frozember', with the aim to hit £5,000 before he end of the week.

So far, more than £1,200 has been raised by submerging teams and individuals from businesses throughout the town into cold water for two minutes.

Christine Griffiths, fundraising and events manager for The Pink Place told the Gazette that there is still a "way to go" to hit the target.

READ MORE: Basingstoke shoppers urged to donate to help people in need this winter

She said: "Every pound really does make a difference and it helps to support those with cancer in our community.

"It raises awareness of our charity and what we're doing. We're a local charity, we're a small charity, so it highlights the type of things that we're doing, but it's also ways of us raising money, which is so vital for us to carry on with our services."

Christine explained how to keep The Pink Place running, the charity needs to raise £10,000 a month.

She said: "It's quite a lot of money and that's just to keep going with the services we're currently doing."

Taking on the challenge on Tuesday, November 26, was the team from Lavazza, who plunged into the 5C water.

Speaking on behalf of the participants was Sam Bennett, who took part in the second dip.

He said that the team were participating in the challenge to support The Pink Place "for all the wonderful things they do for everyone who gets diagnosed with cancer."

Christine explained that participants can spend a maximum of two minutes in the cold water pool, due to health and safety regulations.

Following the success of the challenge last November, she wanted to continue it for a second year.

She said: "This is now the second year we've done this, so it's so successful last year that we wanted to repeat it.

"We're lucky. We have lots of support and lots of companies and corporates that want to come and face the chill."

So far, around 30 Frozember challenges have been completed, with The Pink Place's operations manager, Kay, participating every day. MP Luke Murphy took a plunge earlier this week and is returning for another on Thursday.

Christine said: "We've still got availability. We're doing it throughout the rest of this week and we have got some gaps.

"So, if anybody's still interested in coming, we would like to get in touch."

Readers can take part in the challenge or donate towards The Pink Place by visiting: https://thepinkplace.org.uk/fundraising/frozember/