Story
Jane and Liz completed the swim across Lac Leman on Friday 18th as planned, and in 2 hours and 28 minutes....... this despite the current which tried continously to push us down (up?) the lake to Lausanne. And thanks to your amazing support we have surpassed our fundraising target THANK YOU SO MUCH we are extremely grateful for the support of our families, friends and colleagues.
Finally this would have been impossible without the support of our 'logistics team': James, Poppy and Lily for being at both ends with much encouragement, Bertrand for providing the boat and driving it masterfully and Hugh for providing support and encouragement in and out of the water all the way. Plus the IUCN HQ Species Team for waving us off (what were they thinking?) and Plantlife staff for morale support (and participation!) during pre-swim training in the pool and in truly cold water off the Dorset coast.
It was great fun and we think Richard would have approved.
Our grateful thanks to you all,
Liz and Jane
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'As Patron of WaterAid, I could not be more delighted to support this courageous enterprise in memory of a remarkable man, Richard Sandbrook, who worked passionately and effectively to develop environmentally-based solutions for the world's poorest people. I do congratulate Jane Smart and Liz Radford and wish them every possible success'
HRH The Prince of Wales
'This would be right up Richard's street, doing something lunatic but uplifting in the name of something hugely important and serious. Putting a smile on your face (if your teeth can stop chattering for long enough) for a good cause is the essence of Richard - I wish you every success in the world'
Tim Smit, The Eden Project
'Famous as a founder of FOE, we should never forget that Richard first made his name with a taxonomic key of freshwater invertebrates'
Adrian Darby, President of Plantlife International
'This is a brave venture for a very good cause'
Ibrahim Thiaw, IUCN Acting Director General
Richard was an incredible person, a man of many passions and many talents as the testaments to his life and work show: Guardian , Telegraph, The Independent
We miss him hugely; his warmth, his creativity, his machiavellian tendencies, his energy and his brilliance.
Swim detail:
Date: Friday August 18th 2006 ( Saturday if the weather is inclement on the Friday)
Length: 4 – 4.5km
Direction: North to south PRANGINS to NERNIER
Start time: 12 noon – all welcome to send us off, you can drive round and see us…
Finish: up to 4 hours later in Nernier (we will be very pruny)
Difficulty: Well – it is open water.
Water temperature: at the edge lovely and warm – in the middle very cold
Vaseline: Yes.
Support: Safety boat booked
Nourishment en route: Difficult, though hopefully energy drinks (or maybe brandy?) will be thrown to us in the water by our support crew at around 2km
Swimming aids: None just your basic ATP
Red wine: yes - please get it room temperature for when we arrive (Richard would have insisted).
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Many thanks for your kind support.