Swimming in the Thames River
From Old Boy Quinn Darragh and Current Parent Luke Stewart
Channel attempts are rare this year. With COVID-19 restrictions impacting training regimes, there is a high amount of uncertainty whether or not the swim would be allowed by both French and English authorities. The support and sacrifices made by our family, friends and local community have kept us going through the uncertainty, as has our hope to provide positivity during the challenges presented by COVID-19.
When we are swimming in the dark and cold for hours on end, wearing nothing but our swimmers, the motivation to keep going has been provided by our most vulnerable citizens – babies born prematurely. The swim is in an effort to support the Running For Premature Babies Foundation, to purchase a neonatal ventilator for The Royal Hospital for Women NICU, which will help save the lives of up to 1,000 critically ill babies every year. We are extremely humbled to have raised the required $74,000.
Alice Springs Hospital cares for prematurely born babies from a massive 2.2 million square km area and 70% of the babies they care for are Indigenous. Thanks to our awesome community, we are now well on the way to raising an additional $56,000 to provide two urgently needed humidcribs for the hospital.
We have now arrived in England and have swum in pretty much any body of water we have been able to find – the Thames River, inland lakes, an 18m swimming pool and Dover Harbour.
Enjoying a Guinness in Dover
Our swimming window is from 6 to 15 September. We are excited and nervous for our respective swims, but absolutely committed to doing everything in our control to be successful.
For further information, or to donate, please click here.
