Frequently Asked Questions

Sober October encourages people to go alcohol-free for October and raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. By signing up to the challenge you’re doing something amazing for people living with cancer.

Becoming a Soberhero might not mean you have X-ray vision or you get to wear a cape. But not drinking does mean you’ll gain many heroic qualities and, most importantly, help to change the lives of people with cancer, who need your support now more than ever. Read more here.

You will be able to simply login to reinstate your Soberhero status.

Giving up alcohol for the month doesn’t mean giving up going out and having fun with friends. There are loads of great non-alcoholic brands and products available in pubs, bars, restaurants and shops. You could work through mocktail menus, discover the best pub grub or treat yourself to a fancy dessert (shh…we won’t tell) – just think of the money and calories you’ll be saving by not drinking!

Yes! We know taking some time off the booze is not an easy task so why would we charge you to do it? We value people that want to make a difference by going sober to benefit their own health and the wellbeing of others, therefore we cannot justify charging you good folk to participate.

When you sign up via the Sober October site, your online giving page is set up under your personalised profile URL.

Please note we are unable to link any other online giving pages (including Facebook donations) to your Sober October profile.

First you will need to register to participate in the challenge. Once you have completed signing up, you will have your own Sober October fundraising page. You can then direct people to your unique page URL where they can make a donation through our secure payment gateway using a valid debit or credit card, Google Pay, or PayPal.

We advise you not to use Facebook ‘Add a Donate Button' or create a ‘Facebook Fundraiser’ for Sober October, as this will process the donation through Facebook and it will not appear on your Sober October profile page. We will not be able to add this donation to your Sober October profile page.

We do try to encourage all donations to be made online via an individual or team's profile page, however, we realise this isn't possible for everybody. With this in mind, there’s a form available for people to download and print in order to send in cash donations... Don’t worry it’s all very straightforward.

Cash Donation Form - Download Here

When you’ve collected all your cash, please send a cheque for the total cash donation amount and the completed Donation Form to:

Go Sober - Macmillan Cancer Support
PO Box 6201
Slough
SL1 0FA

Please remember:

To include a covering letter with your cheques so that your donations are allocated correctly to your fundraising page. Please ensure you have included your first and last name that matches your Go Sober profile page.

Offline donations will show on your page within 10 days of receipt.

Please make cheques/CAF cheques/postal orders payable to: Macmillan Cancer Support

Please do not send cash through the post.

Once we have received and processed your donations we will update your profile page to show the cash donations made. You will also receive an email letting you know that your cash donations have been added.

When registering with us you will have chosen a password - don't worry if you've forgotten it!

Just click Forgotten Password in the Login area and enter your registered email address and you will be able to reset your password - make sure you enter your password accurately as all passwords are case sensitive.

Your username is the email address you registered during sign up; if you cannot remember this or need further help, please contact us at [email protected]

You will need to be logged in using your individual email and password to create or join a team.

Once you're logged in, follow these simple steps to create or join a team.

For a minimum £15 donation the Golden Ticket is your chance to have a night off and still make a difference to people living with cancer. Golden tickets can be purchased through the participant’s profile page by either the participant or a donor. Once purchased, a Golden Ticket will be emailed to the lucky participant.

Read more about Golden Tickets.

Yes, absolutely. Show us what you’re made of and sign up today.

You must be over 18 to take part in the Sober October challenge.

Gift Aid is a great opportunity to make your voluntary donations to Macmillan worth 25% more – without spending an extra penny. It enables charities like us to claim the basic tax that donors have paid on their donations back from HM Revenue & Customs. If every supporter agreed to Gift Aid, it would raise hundreds of thousands of pounds more to support people living with cancer.

To be eligible to add Gift Aid to your donation you must be a UK tax payer and you must have paid or will pay an amount of Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax for the current tax year (6 April to 5 April) that is at least equal to the amount of tax that all the charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) that you donate to will reclaim on my gifts for the current tax year. Other taxes such as VAT and Council Tax do not qualify. The charity will reclaim 25p of tax on every £1 that you have given. Make sure you enter the address where you are registered to pay tax; usually your home address

If you choose to donate to a Soberhero on Facebook, please note that this amount won’t appear on their Sober October fundraising page, but your donation will still go to Macmillan Cancer Support.

First thing to do in this instance is check your Junk Email folder. Sadly the amount of spam going around the internet means that Junk Mail filters are becoming more and more complex. It is difficult for us to be 100% sure that your donation receipt will be delivered to your inbox successfully. If the receipt is not in your Junk folder and you still haven't received it after a couple of hours please contact us at [email protected].

Security is an important priority for us and we are committed to protecting your privacy. We use the most up-to-date technology available to protect your personal details. To avoid the risk of computer fraud, your debit/credit card number is not stored in our system at any point in the payment process.

Please see our privacy policy for further information. All debit/credit card transactions are encrypted before transmission using 256 bit SSL encryption. Please click on the SSL Seal in the URL area of a participant or team profile page to verify our details.

We use Worldpay and PayPal as our payment gateways. Worldpay specialises in delivering successful eCommerce payment gateway services to thousands of merchants. Worldpay is a trusted name in eCommerce solutions and remains at the forefront of the online payment industry.

We accept the following payment methods; Visa, Visa Debit, Mastercard, Maestro, Diners, JCB, Amex, Google Pay, and PayPal for online donations.

Macmillan pays fees to cover the building and maintenance of the Go Sober website, support with the marketing of Go Sober and in transaction fees to payment suppliers.

For the website build, maintenance and marketing, we are paying Ezy Raise:

• no upfront fee,
• a fee based on the level of donations received which will be between 3% and 6% depending on the amount raised,
• a royalty fee of 4% of the level of donations received.

In addition, we pay transaction fees to the organisation processing your donation. Payments are processed by World Pay, who charge Macmillan a transaction fee per donation – this is calculated as a percentage of the donation depending on the card type used and your location. For more information, please contact us at [email protected]

All Sober October donations received for 24 hours from 10:00am BST on 14th October 2024 - 10:00am BST on 15th October 2024 (the “Match Day Period”) will be matched by Ezy Raise*, up to the maximum value of £5,000.

Every donation made to Macmillan Cancer Support through the Sober October website during this specified Match Day period will be doubled, so for example, a £20 donation will turn into a £40 donation.

All donations are eligible if made through the Sober October website within the specified Match Day Period above, however Ezy Raise are only matching donations up to the value of £5,000. Once Sober October donations during the Match Day Period have reached £5,000 and that £5,000 has been matched by Ezy Raise, any additional donations will return to their exact value and won’t be doubled.

*EZY RAISE PTY LTD, a company registered in Australia with Australian Business No. 77 639 007 060 whose registered office is at Level 16, 1 Denison Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060, Australia