Tom Walker died unexpectedly and suddenly from leukaemia on 14 June 2018, aged 13. He was a keen swimmer for his school, Monmouth School for Boys, and Monnow Swimming Club, and was learning to row on the river Wye. Less than three months before he died, before he knew he had leukaemia, he raised several hundred pounds for Cancer Research Wales by taking part in a night hike up Pen y Fan, in which he was the youngest participant.

Tom was a quiet, considerate and caring boy and his loss is sorely felt by his family, friends, local community and school. In order to remember Tom his sister Holly and Katie Cameron from Monnow Swimming Club and Monmouth School for Girls organised a swimathon on Sunday 6 January 2019. The Haberdashers’ Monmouth Schools and Cancer Research Wales also supported the swimathon which took place at Monmouth School for Girls.

The swimathon aimed to cover a total distance of 430km - the equivalent of swimming the length of the river Wye and back again - which we knew would require several hundred people to swim a total of 17,200 lengths. In the end we had around 600 swimmers of all abilities - beginners to Olympians - and all ages who over a total of 13 hours swam 39,532 lengths (988.3km or 614 miles). We also had tons of help from over 60 volunteers who counted lengths and helped with the refreshments, raffle, Name the Otter competition, Cancer Research Wales merchandise sale and the general organisation of the day.

All money raised has gone to a dedicated fund named after Tom that will be used by Cancer Research Wales to fund research into leukaemia.

This page is now closed for donations. If you wish to make a donation to Tom's fund, please visit Tom's original JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tim-and-tom-walker or donate to one of our other events.

We are planning to hold the Swim for Tom again in January 2020.

You can contact us at swimfortom@gmail.com.