Hi, I’m Ruth Gledhill and I am doing Swim Serpentine in September, a two-mile swim in the Serpentine in Hyde Park. I am fundraising for HCPT Group 170.

Group 170 is a branch of the national charity, Hosanna House and Children’s Pilgrimage Trust, that takes sick, disabled and disadvantaged children on free pilgrimage holidays to Lourdes at Easter. Group 170 was started in 2008 and since then has taken more than 100 local children on the pilgrimage holiday of a lifetime.

Pilgrims travel out as a group of around 25-30, that includes six to eight sponsored children, and enjoy a week filled with faith, fun and friendship. They fly to the south of France, stay in a hotel sharing meals together, and take part in processions, services, visit the places where St Bernadette grew up, as well as enjoying parties, games and zoo visits.

HCPT’s tagline is “Life Changing Pilgrimage Holidays” and it is profoundly inspiring to see how this charity can change lives, of both helpers and children. A few years ago, Group 170 took a child who was entirely tube fed, and on the plane journey out he decided that he liked the look of the airline breakfast. He proceeded to eat everything that was offered that week, much to the amazement of his parents.

A few years later another child dropped out at short notice due to illness and Ed was offered a second trip with group 170. He was given his own group water bottle he started drinking orally too. He has since has his gastrostomy tube removed and now eats and drinks everything by mouth.

The groups has had feedback from parents that their child has grown in confidence and independence, that they have increased their self esteem. Lourdes with HCPT is a safe and friendly environment in which children can learn more about themselves, and that they are loved for being exactly who they are.

For helpers it is a truly affirming and spiritual experience. Seeing how the love and care the helpers give these children enables them to grow and develop is tremendously rewarding. It is also very humbling to appreciate how hard life must be for them and their families, meeting their complex needs day in, day out, with very minimal respite.

It costs £1075 for each child to travel at Easter 2024, as well as additional funds for travel to the airport, entry to the zoo, cafe visits, games and craft activities. The helpers are each responsible for paying their own fare of £905, and many of them are students or on low incomes.

I am swimming Swim Serpentine in September to ask for your support for this life-changing, inspirational group of people.

My own journey is very different of course to the pilgrimage these children and their helpers and carers take. Swim Serpentine is part of London Marathon Events. As a fairly keen runner in my 20s, I ran the London Marathon in 1987 in a time of 3:48. I “bonked” on the Mall, and tottered the last bit, barely able to stand up. Things were very different then, and there was much laughter from spectators as I staggered my way to the finish. The next day, one of my knees gave out and I gave up running, convinced that was it, for ever. But just before the pandemic, I narrowly survived a critical illness that was exacerbated by subsequent decades of an enjoyably sedentary lifestyle. Recovering slowly from this I was persuaded by friends into parkrun, then longer runs, then cycling – and then swimming. I did Ride London a couple of years ago. This Swim Serpentine will qualify me for the London Classics medal. That is my personal growth goal. There is another aspect of growth for me as well. All my life I have been terrified of outdoor swimnming. I was taught to swim by being thrown bodily as a young child into an outdoor swimming pool in the remnants of an abandoned hotel in Jamaica which had burned down when the tree that grew in the middle of it caught fire (or that was the story we were told at least). Nightmares of drowning and dying by fire plagued me for years afterwards. But outdoor swimming is a must for triathlon, so I have had to confront these terrors. To do a really deep dive, as it were.

Finally, the third and perhaps most important aspect, helping others. The London Marathon alone has raised more than £1.3 billion for charity since its inception in 1981. HCPT is itself looking for fundraisers to run next year’s marathon.

It is satisfying for me to be able to conquer fears and push an ageing body beyond anything imagined even of a much, much younger one.

But it is even more so, to do this and at the same time help these children who so need and benefit from the support of HCPT. This charity aligns with my work for The Tablet, the International Catholic weekly. I had intended to go on this year’s pilgrimage with the group to Lourdes, in order to write a feature about them, but had to turn back as we were boarding the plane, because it was the very same day that Pope Francis died and I was needed in the office.

All money raised will go towards the children’s fares and other directly related expenses.

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