THE world record for largest ever skinny dip was smashed yesterday after more than 2,500 women stripped off in the fight against cancer - as cyclists took part in the fourth annual Brighton Naked Bike Ride.

The women - all aged from their late teens to mid-80s - took over a secluded beach in County Wicklow in Ireland in the hopes of a charity record bid.

Many of the 2,505 participants were cancers survivors who used the mass naked swim as a means to overcome self-confidence issues related to mastectomy scars.

Organisers of the record-breaking stunt have hailed it “an empowering experience in the fight against cancer.”

Collectively, the nude bathers smashed a record previously held by Australian skinny dippers in Perth - despite the water temperature being about 10 degrees colder in Ireland.

The group of 2,505 women also managed to raise more than 275,000 Euros for Irish cancer charity, Aoibheann's Pink Tie.

Organiser Dee Featherstone, who led yesterday's naked charge into the Irish Sea, said the numbers exceeded her wildest dreams.

She said: "I thought we might get 1,500 but it just got bigger and bigger.

"The whole beach was just awash with us - it was just incredible.

"Half the people who were there either had cancer or were affected by cancer or were supporting somebody or remembering someone who had cancer - every woman had their own little story of why they did it.

"It was very empowering."

In Brighton, East Sussex, an estimated 550 people took part in the city's fourth annual Naked Bike Ride.

They made their way through the town centre and along the seafront to Hove.

The event is staged to raise awareness for road safety.

The cyclists strip off to symbolise how vulnerable riders are on Britain's buys roads.

Some women joined in the craze for glitter boobs - plastering their chests with sparkling paint.

She added that a lot of women had been nervous about baring all, due to scars left by cancer operations.

Dee said: "On the day absolutely nobody cared and the people who would have been really scared and nervous about doing it - they were the ones who were in the water longest and naked longest on the beach.

"They went in one sort of women and came out another sort of women - everyone has said that to me since."