The team:

Geri Arrigoni, Caroline Brown, Rups Cregeen, Zib Hanbury, Tanya Johnson, Piers Johnson, Roxy Kennedy, Jen Stearn, Lisa Wilcocks & Catrin White.

On the 30th August, Team Clarkie aka Brancaster Bathers, are swimming from Europe to Asia in the world's oldest open water swim in support of 'Clarkie' - James Clarke; husband of Lottie; father of Martha, Ollie and Matilda, and Proprietary Partner at Knight Frank.

In late 2021, following numerous appointments, James was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease (MND), a severely life shortening neurological disorder for which there is currently no cure. As you can imagine, it was an immense shock to James and his family, friends and colleagues. However, with their love and support, and the help of his team at Knight Frank, James has been given the strength to face this challenge head on, and come out fighting.

MND is a rare disease with only 1,100 people diagnosed each year. However, there is a 1 in 300 risk of getting MND across a lifetime. The general medical consensus is that it is not incurable, it is just underfunded. So to that end, James has sent out the rallying cry to family, friends, colleagues and business associates to help with some crazy fundraising challenges to help fund much needed research into the disease and ultimately find a cure.

James and his friends have already raised an astonishing £640,000 since he started fundraising at the beginning of July 2022, which he is delighted with - but it has also spurred him on to do more! Team Clarkie's attempt to swim the Hellespont and Dardanelles is one of many incredible challenges his friends and colleagues have taken on for Myname5doddie.

The Hellespont and Dardanelles crossing is a significant open water swim of 4½ km between Europe and Asia, crossing the Dardanelles strait. As one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, it is closed for the annual race. The conditions during the event will be testing with choppy waters and currents (and possibly a few jellyfish!) but whilst we are nervous we will be ready for the challenge. In fact, in preparing for this challenge many of us have returned to the pool to have swimming lessons.

We will be documenting our journey on Instagram so follow us at @brancaster_bathers

The primary target of funds raised from James’ charitable challenges will be the Doddie Weir charity - ‘My Name’5 Doddie’. Doddie was one of rugby’s most recognisable personalities, earning 61 caps for Scotland and representing the British and Irish Lions. In June 2017 he revealed he was suffering from MND and, from the outset, was driven to help fellow sufferers and as well as seek ways to further research this rare disease. Sadly the disease took him in November 2022.

Please give generously to help us make the vision of "A world free of MND" a reality.

Thank you,

All the Swim Team