Sarah Dunsbee
Hayley's Channel Relay Team
Fundraising for Autism East Midlands
Story
Autism East Midlands Channel Swimmers make it to France!
Aug 20, 2018
After months of planning and gruelling training, which included several cold trips to the sea at Cleethorpes, Hayley’s Relay Team have finally completed their mammoth challenge of swimming the English Channel. The team arrived in France after 13 hours and 3 minutes of swimming.
Anyone who wishes to take on a Channel Swim are given a weeks window of opportunity to take on the challenge. The window for Autism East Midlands’ Channel Swimming Team was from 9 August to 16 August and if conditions were not safe enough to swim during this time period then the challenge would not go ahead. After a week of weather that created unsafe conditions out in the channel the team were told on Wednesday 15 August that this was not their year and that their challenge could not go ahead as the English Channel was not safe enough to swim in.
The team, devastated with the news, packed their bags and left Dover heading back North to the East Midlands, planning on postponing the challenge and tackling it again next year. On their travels home however the team received a phone call saying that the weather was turning and if they could get back to Dover there was a safe window at 11pm on Thursday night. The challenge was back on!
“To say this challenge was difficult was an understatement – we ended up swimming overnight in extremely rough & choppy conditions. We are delighted that we were able to undertake this challenge in the end and eventually set foot in France, raising an amazing amount of money for a cause which is close to our hearts.”
Autism East Midlands would like to thank Hayley’s Channel Relay Team for their hard work, dedication and support as well as pass on a huge well done on swimming the channel through the night! The team have so far raised an incredible £7509.20 plus £3380 for the safety boat and affiliation fees.
Total amount raised £10,889.2
Hayley’s Team