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Here is Paula's story:-

Two years ago, one of Paula’s closest friends, Julie, was diagnosed with Breast Cancer.  Julie underwent surgery to remove her lymph
nodes, had a mastectomy, chemo and radio therapy and, with thanks to the doctors and modern medicine Julie has come out the other side amazingly.  She still has a long journey ahead with the various complications caused by medication and a future reconstruction on the
horizon but Julie has been strong and continues to fight this disease.

Julie is a marathon runner and has completed 12 half marathons and 3 full marathons.  During the course of her treatment, to try and give Julie something to focus on in the future, Paula suggested that, when Julie is better, she aim to do yet another marathon but this time in aid of Breast Cancer.  The trade-off was that, not being the greatest of runners, Paula would swim a marathon for the same charity.  Paula is currently in training to swim 26.2 miles, on Saturday 6 August, at  the Nemes Dive Centre, at the Holborough Lakes, near Snodland.  This will be a continuous swim in just a costume, hat and goggles – no wetsuit involved!

Paula is no stranger to long distance swimming.  After swimming various distance events around the country, including 10.5 miles in Lake Windermere, in 1992 she swam from England to France and, as if that was not far enough, the following year, she swam from England to France and back again!  She became the 5^th woman in the world to have completed the Double Channel.  After 17 years of ‘resting’ from swimming, she more recently became a member of the World’s First
ladies relay team to swim around the Isle of Wight. 

Although Paula has swum great distances, it has still been 23 years since her double Channel swim, and she is fully aware of just how tough this challenge is going to be.  It is going to take around 17 hours of solid swimming in the lake starting around midnight on Friday, hoping
to finish by around 5.00 pm on Saturday 6 August.

Paula is swimming to raise sponsorship for 'Breast Cancer Now', a charity that is funding research to discover how to prevent breast cancer, how to detect it earlier and how to treat it effectively at every stage.  And they are also finding ways to stop secondary breast cancer.

If you would like to sponsor Paula, she would be very grateful for any amount that you are able to donate and, if you have any spare time on Saturday 6 August, we know she will greatly appreciate it if you are able to come down to the lake to give her a wave, or rock up beside her in one of the kayaks that will be made available – every smiling face will help....

Any support that you can give, by way of monetary donation, or support on the day will be so very gratefully received. 

THANK YOU