Story
Update 25/6/12
After an 8 week training period including last week swimming a mile in Hinksey swimming pool (admittedly in lovely warm water) I felt ready for the challenge of lake Windermere.
The journey to the lakes on Friday 23rd June was a very wet and miserable drive up the M6 but on arrival the lake looked beautiful. Unfortunately the wind was blowing very strongly and the North West of England received its monthly rainfall in that weekend. The result of this was that the Great North Swim organisers cancelled all swimming on Friday and Saturday (our swim day) on safety grounds.
We were disapointed to put it mildly but had no option but to accept their decision which I am sure was the right one.
As swimming was now out we got up early on Saturday morning and scaled the nearest mountain instead which was the Old Man of Coniston.
This in itself was a tale of driving rain, dense fog and a path that could be more accurately described as a stream. Despite dwindling rations of M&S toffee's we made it to the top where we crawled to the summit in gale force winds.
The muscles that I had so finely tuned to drive me forward on my swim sadly were not the same ones that you need for mountain climbing so I am now hobbling about like an old man.
In lieu of the swim I would ask sponsors to accept the climb as sufficient to merit the donations along with a committment to return to another great swim event next year to complete the promised mile.
Best wishes and thank you for your support
Phil
Hello and thanks for taking time to look at how to support my fundraising for Chauncy Maples charity. The charity aims to restore an old steamer ship to its original purpose as a hospital ship in Malawi and help hundreds of Malawi people who wouldnt otherwise have access to healthcare.
I am swimming 1 mile in the freezing cold waters of Lake Windemere on 23rd June 2012 with my wife Sarah in the Great North Swim to support this amazing charity that I heard about through some friends last year, and felt inspired to do something to help.
Please read below to learn about the convoluted history of an amazing ship now being restored to her former glory by Chauncy Maples Charity. I hope you feel inspired and take advantage of the chance to support her being rebuilt and achieving her original purpose in Lake Malawi as a hospital ship.
Chauncy Maples (named after an Anglican Missionary ordained in Oxford) was a 150 ton steamship ordered by the British Universities "Mission to central Africa" about 10 years before the Titanic was built. Much smaller than the Titanic ( about a 1/7th of the size!) . Built in Glasgow, she was disassembled into 3,481 parts and shipped over to Malawi in Africa, rebuilt, and launched in lake Milawi in 1901. That was not an easy task in the early 1900's and involved people carrying heavy component parts on their heads, and the boiler was ' carried on a barge up the Zambezi and Shiré Rivers and hauled overland by 450 Ngoni tribesmen for 64 miles!! ( they averaged three miles a day )'.
She had three main purposes:
1. A hospital ship
2. A missionary school
3. An emergency refuge from Arab slave traders
In World War 1 she was used as a troop carrier and a naval gunboat. She was sold in 1953 and used as a fishing trawler and later refitted as a passenger and cargo vessel.
The MV Chauncy Maples was designed for Lake Malawi and is still the perfect vessel for this job of delivering health services to lake shore villages.She is of sufficient size to carry a crew, a medical team and equipment for primary health care .With a population of 15 million, there are only 250 doctors in Malawi - one doctor for every 52,000 people (1 doctor per 500 people in UK). Please consider making a donation- it really will be money well spent! If you want to read more about the charity please go onto their website:
Thank you
Phil