As winners of the Halliwick AST Swimming Gala National Finals in 2017, Halliwick Astra 5 has been invited to enter a team in the International Halliwick Association Gala in Krakow, Poland on 22nd September of this year.

The only proviso is that we raise the funds required, although the Halliwick Association of Swimming Therapy will give a small donation.

We will have to cover the cost of travel and accommodation. The swimmers and their carers will raise some money with events such as raffles and car boot sales, but we will have to raise most of the money from donations. We need to raise £6,000.00. It is very rare that our swimmers get the opportunity to travel abroad to compete, the last Halliwick International Gala being 11 years ago, and this is a fantastic opportunity for them.

Will you consider giving a donation to make this a reality? Any amount will be most gratefully received. Seven members of the team are from the Pontefract area. One of our swimmers, Charlotte Firth (30, of Little Fenton) first started competitive swimming during 2017. Charlotte has competed in swimming events at Liverpool, Blackpool, Hatfield, Beverley and Harrogate and won gold medals at all these galas. Charlotte has quickly established herself on the team, supporting her team mates as well as being a great asset on our relay squads. At the Halliwick Regional Championships, Charlotte won a medal in every one of her four events.

Charlotte qualified for the National Finals in London, where she won her first ever national title in the Ladies’ 100m event. At the Halliwick National Championships, Charlotte was also part of the silver medal winning league relay squad. Sarah Shutt (42, of Featherstone) is four times Halliwick National Champion. Sarah is an inspirational lady with Down Syndrome, with a glittering array of successes in the pool at regional, national and international level to her name. In addition to her busy training regime, Sarah currently holds 8 World Records and 8 European Records for swimmers with Down Syndrome over several distances and strokes. Sarah is very excited about the prospect of representing her country abroad.