Frequently asked questions

The Dog Walking Challenge takes place from 1st to 31st May. Sign up for free and walk 100km with your dog (or a distance that suits you). Get out and about with your four-legged friend whilst raising vital funds for blood cancer research.

Anyone can take part, whether you’ve been affected by blood cancer or are walking in honour of a loved one.

The Dog Walking Challenge starts on 1st May and finishes on 31st May. Although we recommend to walk 100km with your dog, the challenge can be completely flexible and personal to you. When you sign up you can choose the distance you want to complete. You and your dog can walk on your own or with friends and family. Log your walks on your fundraising page to add to our team total.

Along the way, we ask that you share your personal fundraising page (created when you sign up) and try to raise as much as you can to help fund our vital research into blood cancer.

Yes absolutely! You can take part whenever suits you, please let our Supporter Relations Team know by emailing hello@bloodcancer.org.uk so we can send your ‘thank you’ letter once you’ve completed your challenge.

Please ask your friends, family, colleagues and neighbours to get involved – the more the merrier! You can also find out what other people in our community are doing and if they’re local to you in the Dog Walking Challenge Facebook group.

No, it’s free to sign up. However, you can help us cover our costs and kickstart your fundraising by adding your first donation to your fundraising page. Simply register by clicking ‘Sign up’ and your fundraising page will be set up automatically, then choose how much you’d like to donate.

You can choose your own dog walking route, whether that be a field, woodland walk, park or a dog-friendly beach near you. Take the challenge solo or team up and form a social dog walking group. You could even create a fun dog fundraiser team name!

That’s completely up to you. If you sign up hoping to complete 100km but feel that you and your dog can only safely complete less, do what works best! Every contribution counts. Thank you for taking part in the challenge to help beat blood cancer.

Every kilometre helps! And every pound raised will go towards funding vital blood cancer research. This is your challenge, and you can do it any way you like, please feel free to adapt this challenge to suit your specific needs and abilities. You can change your target distance at any time.

Absolutely! We encourage everyone to take part. You could always ask a friend with a dog if you can join in with their dog walks.

We understand that there are times your dog may not be able to take part with you, please do continue with the walk if you’re able to and we hope your dog is able to join you again soon.

Yes, as long as you’re both signed up, please do log both distances so you can track your progress and achievements.

Safety is the top priority when taking part in this dog walking challenge. You know your dog best, and we encourage you to think about the distance you walk per session and whether it is appropriate for your dog, especially if they are still a puppy. If you have any concerns about your dog, please consult a vet.

We recommend walking your dog in the morning or evening when it's cooler. For more information on walking dogs in warm weather, check out trusted sources such as RSPCA. Please ensure that you carry plenty of water for you and your dog and keep to shady paths.

You can take part however you wish with your dog! This challenge is for everyone whether you walk, run, skip, hop or wheel. Just set your personal or team challenge to suit you and update your fundraising page to let everyone know what you’ll be doing. Don’t forget to log your distances completed on your fundraising page.

You could use Strava, Fitbit or other fitness apps on your phone or fitness watch. You can link Strava to your fundraising page and all walks will be automatically uploaded, or you can add each walk on yourself (see below for how to do this). Share your progress with your friends and family to encourage sponsorship throughout the month.

Your personal fundraising page was created for you when you signed up, and you can use this to track your activity. You can add activities manually (watch this handy video to see how) or link your Strava app to your page and have everything you do uploaded automatically. Only activity you record after you’ve connected your accounts will be shared automatically on your page. If you choose to use this tool, you may like to use Strava’s Privacy Zones function to hide your start/finish location.

If you have any problems, please get in touch and we can guide you through it.

As you log your fitness, your progress will be shown on your page's progress bar and the distance will be added to our team total.

Watch this video that explains how to log your fitness without using Strava.

Once you've signed up, go to dogwalkingchallenge.bloodcancer.org.uk, login and click on ‘My Page’. Scroll down to ‘Latest updates’ on your fundraising page and you’ll see an option that says 'Log fitness'. Here you can manually add activities you've completed to your page. These will all be included in our team distance total.

Once you've signed up, go to dogwalkingchallenge.bloodcancer.org.uk, login and click on ‘My Page’. Scroll down to ‘Latest updates’ and select ‘Connect Strava’. Login to your Strava account and your fundraising page will automatically connect.

To change your target distance once you’ve registered, go to dogwalkingchallenge.bloodcancer.org.uk, login and click on ‘My Page’. Scroll down and click on ‘Edit my page’ here you can change your target distance for May. You can amend this as many times as you like.

Once you sign up, your fundraising page will be created and any donations collected on your page will automatically be transferred to Blood Cancer UK. The best way to raise money is to share your page with friends and family so they can donate to you. Look out for lots of fundraising top tips and ideas when you sign up so that we can raise more together to beat blood cancer.

Yes, you can still collect money offline using a sponsorship form and add this to your page. Read more about how to pay in your donations. You can also pay in offline sponsorship by contacting our Supporter Relations Team. Email hello@bloodcancer.org.uk or call 0808 2080 888.

Once you've signed up, go to dogwalkingchallenge.bloodcancer.org.uk, login and click on ‘My Page’. Click on ‘Edit page’ and underneath your story you can input your ‘Total offline amount’. Read this guide for further information on how to add offline fundraising to your JustGiving page.

No, there’s no minimum required fundraising target for this event. We just ask you pledge to raise as much as you can for Blood Cancer UK. To help you raise as much as possible, we’ll support you by sending you a free t-shirt if you raise £50 and a doggie bandana if you raise £150.

To update your fundraising target, login to JustGiving and click on ‘Edit page’ in the top of your screen. Here’s a guide on how to edit your page and your fundraising target.

T-shirts will be sent out in three batches to reduce costs to the charity. Raise £50 by 23rd April to receive your t-shirt before the challenge begins, If you raise £50 after this, you’ll receive your t-shirt in June with your ‘thank you’ letter.

If you can’t wait, visit our online shop and check out our range of clothing.

Doggie bandanas will be sent out in three batches to reduce costs to the charity. Raise £150 by 23rd April to receive your bandana before the challenge begins. If you raise £150 after this, you’ll receive your bandana in June with your ‘thank you’ letter.

Yes, we welcome all of your dogs to take part. You’ll need to raise £150 for each bandana, once you’ve hit that amount, please email our Supporter Relations Team at hello@bloodcancer.org.uk and let us know how many bandanas you need.

Yes, once your fundraising page has reached £50 you can request a kids’ t-shirt to be sent alongside your adult t-shirt for your child/children. Please contact our Supporter Relations Team by emailing hello@bloodcancer.org.uk and include a link to your fundraising page and the child’s age for the t-shirt size.

If you’re sharing a fundraising page, please ask your group leader (the person who set up the fundraising page) to let us know the name, t-shirt size and contact details (including address) of everyone who’s sharing their fundraising page by emailing hello@bloodcancer.org.uk. 

This is so we can keep track of how much you've all raised to send out your t-shirts and bandanas once you hit your fundraising targets (raise £50 each to get your t-shirt and raise £150 each to get your bandanas). Each person must hit these fundraising targets to get their rewards.

Yes, once you sign up you can create or join a team fundraising page. Watch this video on how to create a team.

You’ll need a team name and team fundraising target to get started. When others sign up, they can choose to join your team by typing in the same team name, this will make sure you are all part of the same team and your pages are together. We ask that every team member signs up individually on our webpage so that we have your t-shirt size and contact details to send your rewards.

You can use the live chat function with the JustGiving team from within your JustGiving account to raise your issue. If not, please get in touch with our Supporter Relations Team and let us know the problem, we’re here to help you.

Absolutely! If you’re looking to organise a charity fundraising event as part of your corporate philanthropy work then the Dog Walking Challenge is a great way to do this.

The event is flexible, so people of all fitness levels can take part and help reach our total distance anyway they like. Virtual events are also a great way to build relationships between teams.

Please contact us for more information about fundraising as a company through the Dog Walking Challenge on hello@bloodcancer.org.uk.

Please email our Supporter Relations Team on hello@bloodcancer.org.uk or phone 0808 2080 888 to let us know that you’d like to withdraw.

You can email hello@bloodcancer.org.uk or phone 0808 2080 888 with any questions and we’d be happy to help.