Beach Buddies and Breast Cancer Now are teaming up for the first time together for the New Year’s Day charity dip in Douglas.

The two charities are planning to jointly host a number of other brand new fund raising events on the island in the coming years, including an annual beach party, the first of which will be held in the summer.

’We have already helped each other previously, and it just makes lots of sense to get together and share ideas and skills, with the Manx community being the ones to directly benefit,’ said Angie Aire of Breast Cancer Now.

’Our first joint venture will be to include Beach Buddies in our traditional New Year’s Day Dip on Douglas promenade, and this will be the first of a number of events which the two charities will share in the future.

’We are really excited about the idea of a beach party next summer, which could potentially be a really big event and something that’s never been done before.

’Together, I think Breast Cancer Now and Beach Buddies can do some really great things together in the future."

Bill Dale, founder of Beach Buddies, which removes litter from beaches, said: ’We are a relatively new charity, and we haven’t organised any major fundraising events in the past, so this is a first for us.’

He said that he had noticed that there were very few charities that linked up with each other and he believed getting together on joint projects would be a good idea.

He added: ’We each have different skills and different sets of supporters, but we both have the same aim - to do something positive for the community. We’ve bounced around lots of ideas and come up with a number which should be great fun for everyone and regular events on the calendar in the future.

’We are really looking forward to working together. This is the start of something special for the Isle of Man.’

New Year’s Day dips are held at several beaches across the island. Most raise money for good causes.

Beach Buddies is sponsored by FIM Capital.

We give publicity like this for free to good causes in the Isle of Man.

Include a phone number with every email you send us and avoid attachments for text. Simply write on the email itself.

Or phone our reporters on 695697,