BSSC Swimmers and Families Raise £5k for 2019 Swimathon

Over the weekend of 29-31 March, twenty BSSC Swimmers and intrepid family members took to the pool for the 2019 Swimathon, swimming more than 63km (2526 lengths!) and raising nearly £5000 for Marie Curie and Cancer Research UK!!!

The event is the World’s largest (annual) fundraising swim, taking place in 600 pools across the UK with more than 21,000 participants swimming 42,000km and raising £2million in just one weekend.  Since its inception, Swimathon has helped raise more than £48 million for a variety of nominated charities including Macmillan Cancer Support, NSPCC, The British Heart Foundation, The Prince’s Trust, Comic Relief, Marie Curie and, for the first time in 2018, Cancer Research UK.

Swimathon is designed to suit all levels of fitness, ability and age, which was fortunate for some of our participants who were not regular swimmers but had felt the urge to do something worthwhile for charity.  The event offers individual and team distances of 400m to 5km and the 2019 BSSC participants and the distances they completed were:

• 5km Team of Sam Carter, Seb Clark, Max Williams
• Philippa & Annabel Clark (2.5km & 5km)
• The Clune Family: Catherine (2.5km), Elizabeth (5km), Naomi (5km) and Joe (5km)
• Kat & Lauren Gore (both 5km)
• Nadia Moukdad (2.5km)
• Sarah & Kirsty Neill (both 5km)
• Karen (2.5km), Scarlett (1.5km) & Lewis (1.5km) Roddam-Powell
• The Wardell Sisters: Jaymee (2.5km), Tia (80 lengths) & India (26 lengths, aged just 7 yrs!)

Although it was a charity event, we obviously couldn’t resist sneaking a peak at some of the rankings and noticing that some of our individual swimmers came in the top 50 in the Country for their event and age group!  Amazing swimming!

• In the 5km event Lauren Gore and Kirsty Neill came 24^thand 31^stin the 10-12 year age group, whilst Joe Clune came 48^thin the 50-54 age group.
• In the 2.5km, Karen Roddam led the pack coming an amazing 8^thin the 40-44 age group, Jaymee Wardell came 12^th(10-12 age group), Nadia Moukdad came 32^nd(13-15 age group) and Catherine Clune was 41^st(10-12 age group).
• In the 1.5km, Lewis Roddam-Powell emulated his mum with a brilliant 14^thin the 9 and Under age group.

Well done to everyone for raising such a great amount for two very worthwhile causes.  Same again next year?