Story
I am an Intensive Care Doctor in Sydney, Australia, but am originally from Redcar in Northern England. I have been thinking about swimming the English Channel, ever since I read one of my dad's old annuals when I was about 7 years old. It had a profile of human firsts, and one of them was Captain Matthew Webb swimming from England to France. He was wearing a ridiculous victorian bathing suit, and sporting an even dafter moustache.
However after 1 month of swimming 6 times a week in 2007, which was the most I had done since I stopped competitive swimming, I was exhausted, and told myself that it was a ridiculous idea, and I should stop contemplating such folly.
Then on 14th June 2008 Gavin, my best friend Anthony’s younger brother was assaulted whilst walking home from work in a callous, unprovoked assault in his home town of Thornaby, England. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough with severe head injuries, and the medical staff did not expect him to survive. Anthony and the rest of Gavin’s family spent the next week by Gavin's bedside in the Intensive Care Unit, hoping that he would improve. Unfortunately he didn't, and despite the dedication and care given by the medical and nursing staff in the ITU, Gavin died 9 days after the attack on June 23rd 2008.
Watching one of my 2 best friends read a eulogy about his brother was not something I ever expected to see at this stage in my life. It was an extremely emotional day. Kathleen and I flew back to Sydney having only been in the UK for 42 hours, emotionally and physically drained.
Gavin’s family were impressed and grateful by the devotion and professionalism given to Gavin by all the staff in the Intensive Care Unit and would like to use this opportunity to demonstrate their appreciation of the care given.
It was during our time in the UK, that Anthony and I decided to swim the channel and to raise money for life saving research in critical care and specifically to buy much needed equipment for the Intensive Care Unit in the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough in memory of Gavin.
Gavin’s mum, Brenda Watson said:
“We are so proud of Stuart and honoured that he is attempting this swim in honour of Gavin. This is an unbelievable gesture and all of us are willing him to succeed.”
I hope to raise $100,000 for research programmes of the Australian and UK Intensive Care Foundations plus £50,000 for the intensive care unit at James Cook, where Gavin was a patient. Clinical Director of Intensive Care in the James Cook University Hospital is Dr Stephen Bonner, who hopes to use the money raised from the channel swim to buy a High Frequency Oscillator, which is a highly specialised and potentially life saving form of ventilator, which can be used to treat patients who have developed respiratory failure following conditions such as septicaemic shock or major trauma. ‘All money raised will be put to good use and help to purchase equipment that may help to save other people’s lives, but even above this, the fact that family and friends can take on such a massive challenge, send out signals to all staff who do a challenging and difficult job that their efforts are recognised and appreciated by others and this of itself is immensely important to us’ Already I have completed the qualifying six-hour swim off Northern Queensland and am in training for the big event in the week of 26th August, the exact day depending on the weather conditions. Having already conquered the summit of Everest, I hope my previous experience as a competitive swimmer when I took part in the Olympic, World and Commonwealth trials, will stand me in good stead when I face the 21-mile cold stretch of water between England and France. “I’ve always been a keen swimmer, starting when I was four at a club in Redcar until I was ten when I joined Stockton Aquatics. I did have some success at regional and national level and continued swimming when I studied medicine in Newcastle,” he said. “However I stopped competitive swimming in 1995 as it was beginning to affect my studies and I haven’t taken part in a competition since. “This is something I’ve always wanted to do and has a certain mythological aura about it. It's not just the fact that it is an ocean swim – it’s also to do with all the history of the two countries that you are swimming between. “On a purely physical mental level, it really is the Mount Everest of open-water swimming, except many people have now reached the summit of Everest but only 1,000 have conquered the Channel.” To do this for such a good cause which could also help to save the lives of other patients in Critical Care is incredibly important to me and I would ask you to donate anything you can to this good cause. You can follow the channel swim on my blog on the Intensive Care Foundation website, www.intensivecareappeal.com.