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What counts as Sober October?
Macmillan still describes the challenge on its site as going alcohol-free for October and raising money for people living with cancer. Its published rule, checked on 13 September 2026, is: no lager, no wine, not even a shandy. Source: Macmillan, easy fundraising ideas.
Macmillan's own "Go Sober for October" link still pointed at gosober.org.uk that day. That address redirected to Alcohol Change UK's Sober October. Two UK fundraisers now sit on the same month. If you are raising money, pick the charity first, then the tracker.
France has no institutional equivalent in October. The French public campaign is the Défi De Janvier, in January.
What if you have a drink?
Streak apps treat a drink as a broken run. The counter goes back to day one. That is a useful design if the only acceptable month is a perfect one. It is a poor design for a month you will actually live through: a birthday, a work do, a Friday that got away from you.
Count drink-free days out of 31 instead. A month with two drinking days is 29 days off. That is a different month from your usual one. The total still moved. Restarting on day 12 is how the remaining 19 days disappear from the log.
What 31 days off adds up to
These figures are a calculation, not a claim about users. They assume you currently drink the weekly units in the first column, every week, and you drink none of them in October.
Hypothesis: a UK pint (568 ml) of 4% lager at £4.80. That pint is 2.3 UK units and 127 kcal from alcohol alone, using millilitres × ABV ÷ 1000. Carbohydrate calories in beer are not included.
| Usual week | Units in 31 days | Alcohol kcal | Spend |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 UK units | 35.4 | 1,985 | £74.85 |
| 14 UK units | 62.0 | 3,473 | £130.99 |
| 20 UK units | 88.6 | 4,962 | £187.12 |
Fourteen units is the UK Chief Medical Officers' weekly low-risk guideline. Eight is below it. Twenty is above it. Change the pint price or the strength and the money moves; the units formula does not. Work a specific drink in the unit calculator.
Tracking it in Modraly
From 1 to 31 October 2026, Modraly lists an App Store in-app event: October Drink-Free Challenge. It opens the calendar. Mark each drink-free day. Empty days stay empty, so the month fills in as you go. A drink on 12 October is a number in the month, not a reset.
The event is not affiliated with Macmillan or Alcohol Change UK. Free logging is unlimited. History on the free tier is the last 7 days, so the full 31 days in one view is Premium.
Free to download. Logging is unlimited, always.
Raise money for Macmillan
If the point of the month is the fundraiser, go to Macmillan: macmillan.org.uk/fundraise. Alcohol Change UK runs its own Sober October at soberoctober.org.uk. Modraly does not collect money for either.
Common questions
When is Sober October 2026?
Thursday 1 October to Saturday 31 October 2026. That is 31 days. Halloween is inside the month, not after it.
Are alcohol-free drinks allowed during Sober October?
Macmillan's published line for Go Sober for October is "No lager. No wine. Not even a shandy." It does not spell out 0.0% drinks. Decide before 1 October whether alcohol-free beer and wine count for you, and keep that rule for 31 days.
What if I have a drink during Sober October?
The month is 31 days. One drinking day leaves 30 drink-free days. A streak that resets to zero treats that day as a failed month, which is how people stop logging. Count the days. Do not restart the month.
Is there a free app for Sober October?
Modraly is free to download. From 1 to 31 October 2026 it lists an App Store in-app event, October Drink-Free Challenge: mark drink-free days on the calendar. Logging is unlimited. Free shows the last 7 days and deletes nothing; Premium shows the rest of the month in one view, plus widgets. Try Dry is a free campaign app from Alcohol Change UK if you want missions and badges. Modraly is not affiliated with either campaign.
Sober October vs Dry January: what is the difference?
Both are a month off alcohol. Dry January sits in the UK with Alcohol Change UK and in France with the Défi De Janvier. Sober October is used generically; in the UK, Macmillan Cancer Support has run it as Go Sober for October, a fundraiser. The calendar math is the same: 31 days, not a perfect run.
Is Modraly affiliated with Macmillan or Alcohol Change UK?
No. Modraly gets nothing from mentioning them. If you want to raise money, go to them directly.
