Supporters raise money for Cancer Research UK by challenging themselves to do 100 push-ups a day across the month of April.
Once you’ve signed up, join the Facebook group dedicated to this challenge and click 'Join Group'. Once you're in, you can complete a form to get your free Cancer Research UK t-shirt, get tips for completing your push-ups, be inspired by other fundraisers and find out anything you want to know about the challenge.
Yes! If you don’t have Facebook, you can set up a Cancer Research UK online Giving Page and collect sponsorship for your 100 Push-Ups a Day Challenge.
There is no entry fee for this challenge, but we do ask that you fundraise for Cancer Research UK through your online Giving Page. All donations to the page will automatically be sent to us.
While we encourage everyone to complete this challenge in April, this is a personal challenge and you can start and finish at a time that’s convenient for you. If you can’t complete your push-ups count on any given day, then you can make up for it at a later date and continue the challenge into May.
You can complete the challenge in any way that suits you. There are people of all levels of fitness doing this challenge. The important thing is that you’re doing something that challenges you, whether that’s all 100 push-ups in one go or split up over the day. It should be tough, but doable. However you choose to complete the challenge and raise money, you’ll be helping beat cancer.
Don’t worry! You can make up the number of push-ups on another day or extend your challenge into the following month if needed. Complete the challenge in a way that suits you.
The only thing that matters is that you try your best to complete as much of the challenge as you can. Whether that’s completing all 100 push-ups a day for the whole of April or not, the money you raise will help us to keep funding life-saving research. Whatever you manage to achieve, we can’t thank you enough.
We trust you! You don’t need to provide evidence that you’ve completed the challenge to us, but your friends and family will want some updates. Make sure you keep them posted on your progress and share videos, photos and your online Giving Page throughout April – the more updates the better. Supporters who regularly post about their progress raise 40% more on average.
We recommend using our push-ups calendar(PDF, 162 KB) to keep track of your progress. Tick off each day you’ve completed your push-ups and track the number of push-ups you’ve done so you can see your total.
There are many ways you can complete a push-up correctly. Below is the traditional method, but there are easier ways to do it too (see 'I'm struggling with push-ups. Is there an alternative' question)
First, get into the starting plank position. Keep your legs together, with the balls of your feet and toes planted firmly on the floor. Your arms should be straight, with your hands placed just wider than shoulder-width apart.
In this starting position, your fingers should be spread out and pointed forwards. Most importantly, your body should form a straight line from your heels to your shoulders, with your head up.
Start lowering yourself down towards the floor, concentrating on maintaining your straight body position. If you pull in your glutes (the muscles in your backside) and your abs (stomach muscles), this will help you maintain a rigid body position throughout. Keep lowering yourself until your chest almost touches the floor. Pause before pushing back up until your arms are straight. That’s one repetition – you should be doing at least 10 in a set. Go slowly at first, concentrating on perfecting the correct body position. Watch this video to see how to do a push-up correctly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzXouAU1y0Y
There are many variations of push-ups that can accommodate each individual's level of strength. Here are two you can try.
Kneel on the floor.
Extend your arms and put your hands shoulder-width apart on the floor in front of you.
Tighten your abs while you bend your arms, lowering your torso until your chest grazes the floor.
Push your torso back up by straightening your arms – go slow and steady.
Repeat!
Read more tips and guidance on knee push-ups
Stand at arm’s length from the wall. Place your hands flat against the wall at chest level, with your fingers pointing upwards.
With your back straight, slowly bend your arms, keeping your elbows by your sides. Aim to close the gap between you and the wall as much as you can.
Slowly return to the start.
Read more NHS advice on wall push-ups
Complete this form to receive your free Cancer Research UK t-shirt in the post. Once completed, please allow 10 working days for your Cancer Research UK t-shirt to arrive.
If you haven’t received your Cancer Research UK t-shirt after this time, please contact supporter.services@cancer.org.uk.
When filling out your sign-up form, select ‘no’ where it asks if you’d like to receive a Cancer Research UK t-shirt. You’ll still receive an online Giving Page, be able to join the challenge group and take part!
If you have any further questions, please email supporter.services@cancer.org.uk or call 0300 1231022 (lines open 8am-8pm, Monday to Friday and 9am-5pm at weekends).
Unfortunately, returning Cancer Research UK t-shirts comes at a cost to us, so we ask that you keep hold of it for personal use (you could wear it in bed, at the gym or give it to a friend).
Sending out your Cancer Research UK t-shirt comes at a cost to us, so please only order one Cancer Research UK t-shirt per fundraiser to make sure as much money as possible goes towards our life-saving work. We ask that everyone requesting a Cancer Research UK t-shirt donates something to their fundraising page.
Yes, under-18s can take part in this challenge, but we don’t market to them and any third-party platform forums (such as Facebook forums) are only available to people over 18. If under-18s are taking part, their parent or guardian must consent to the child’s participation, supervise the challenge and accept responsibility for complying with the challenge rules. The child’s parent or guardian must register on the child’s behalf and if a child wants to raise money online and/or join a forum, their parent or guardian must register for an online Giving Page and/or join the forum on the child’s behalf.
Participants must register as individuals, but you can then set up a team Giving Page to take on the challenge and raise money together.
All your team will need to sign up to the 100 Push-ups a Day in April Challenge, so you each have your own online Giving Page.
Once everyone has signed up, log into your account.
Hit the 'Create new team' button and follow the instructions.
Once you've created your team, you can send the team page URL to friends and family so they can join too! Find more information about setting up a team.
Once you’ve created your team, you can either split up your push-ups between the group, or you can all complete 100 push-ups a day across the month.
For this challenge, if you have raised at least £150 you will be sent a medal. You’ll also be sent a certificate in your completion email at the end of your challenge. You can also access downloadable digital badges to shout about your achievement on social media.
Using our Online Fundraising Platform is the easiest way to raise money. You’ll receive an online Giving Page once you’ve registered here: https://activities.cancerresearchuk.org/push-up-challenge-april-2026.
You can then share the page with your friends and family to gather sponsorship for your challenge.
If you're happy to keep the page online, but want to stop taking donations, you can change the closing date of your page.
You'll need to go to your Giving Page (make sure you're logged in) and scroll down and select ‘Page settings’.
Select ‘Page closure date’. You can choose to close the page now or set a future date to close your page.
Tap ‘Save’ for the changes to come into effect. People can still view a closed page but can’t donate to it. You can reopen a closed page by selecting ‘Keep your page open indefinitely’.
Please note, you don't need to close your page for the money you have raised to transfer to Cancer Research UK. This happens automatically when each donation is made.
If you'd like to take the page off the site completely, you can email us at OnlineFundraisingQueries@cancer.org.uk and we'll get that sorted for you.
If you'd like to extend the closing date of your fundraising page, you can do this by editing your page. If you need any further support with this please contact our Supporter Services team, who'd be happy to help!
We don’t set a fundraising target for participants, but we recommend that supporters set themselves a reasonable target of raising £150 or more.
Log in to your page and take a few minutes to personalise it. You can add a photo, update the 'My Story' section to share why raising funds for this cause is important to you.
If you're able to, kick-start the fundraising by adding your own donation to your Online giving page. It can often help to get things going - it's a bit like making sure your friends aren't the first guests at a party.
Share a post on your social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, anything you use) to tell people about your challenge - and make sure to share the link to your Online giving page in the post.
Remember, any donation can make a difference. As little as £3 could buy a pair of safety goggles to keep our scientists safe while they conduct their cutting-edge experiments.
Let us know how you get on by posting on the group, and we can offer further help if you want it. You've got this!
£5 can fund a lab technician for over 30 minutes, ensuring researchers are equipped with everything they need to beat cancer.
£10 can buy 250 plastic test tubes to help carry out cancer-fighting experiments.
£15 can buy agarose gel, which is a vital component for a technique that scientists use to measure the length of pieces of DNA.
£20 could buy antibiotics to keep the cells studied by our scientists free from infections.
Yes, absolutely! You can raise your fundraising target on your online Giving Page at any time. Supporters who increase their fundraising target raise an average of 51% more than those who don’t, so why not head over to your page and raise yours!
We have plenty of fundraising materials and ideas to help you raise life-saving donations. Visit our fundraising hub for everything you need for your challenge.
Gift Aid is a tax relief allowing UK charities to reclaim an extra 25% on every eligible donation made by a UK taxpayer. This means Cancer Research UK can claim an extra 25p for every £1 donated, without it costing you or your sponsors an extra penny. For a donation to be eligible for Gift Aid, sponsors need to fill out the sponsorship form following the instructions at the top of the page.
Email: supporter.services@cancer.org.uk
Grab your fundraising pack, challenge calendar, shareable badges and more to help you reach your fundraising goals.
