OK, so I thought it would be a great idea to swim all 16 lakes in Cumbria in 16 days. That was in the warmth of my own home back in March and before we had started back training in open water. However, once I started to mention this to one or two people things started to take shape, but we still needed a good charity to hang the swim on. This was when I thought of my old friend Annie and her wonderful musical children, especially as this would be keeping the money within the county and knowing that we would be in good company with the likes of Sir Paul McCartney and a few other names I could drop in.
So far we have swam Lowes Water, Crummock Water, Buttermere, Coniston Water, Thirlmere, Ullswater, Ennerdale Water, Wast Water, Grasmere, Rydal Water, Elter Water and Esthwaite Water covering a total of 38.2km, with only 4 lakes to go!
Our swimmers in this challenge have been Jonathan Hewitt, Thomas Noblett, Dee Llywellyn, Barry O'Doherty, Sam Starmer, Alan Young, Chris Claux, Anne Dodd, Duncan Potter, Mike Scales, Myles Little, Stephen Foster, Vanessa Foster and myself, Graeme Sutton.
Now the preamble from Just Giving but it is important especially as I am about to swim over 50km just for 'fun'.
Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
So please dig deep and donate now.