Bramley Resident Zoe Sadler Completes 2010 Swimathon

Between April 16th to April 18th 2010, the worlds biggest fundraising swim took place  at over 500 pools around the UK.

Swimathon provides motivation and a personal challenge to swimmers nationwide.  It also offers a goal to train for, a target to achieve and a great cause to support.

Duncan Goodhew, Olympic gold medallist and Swimathon President.

Swimathon History

• Swimathon launched in 1986
• Over £32 million has been fundraised for various charities
• ½ million swimmers have taken part

Bramley resident Zoe Sadler of Farriers Close, a 36 year old mother of two took part in this years challenge despite finding it personally demanding, and did so because of ‘the cause’.

Zoe’s Challenge

Zoe chose to do the 5K individual swim, which is broadly equivalent to doing a half marathon, though Zoe says “I would rather swim the 13 miles than run them”. But to make it an even more difficult challenge, Zoe completed the 5K swim five times over the weekend.

Unfortunately none of the local swimming pools offered this number of Swimathon sessions so she had to do a tour of Berkshire and North Hants to fit it all in.

Here was her schedule:

• Fri 16th April. Kennet Leisure Centre, 2:30pm
• Friday 16th April. Willink Leisure Centre, 7pm
• Saturday 17th April. Basingstoke Aquadrome, 2:30pm
• Sunday 18th April. Loddon Valley Leisure Centre, 9:30am
• Sunday 18th April. Loddon Valley Leisure Centre, 2:30pm

Despite the punishing schedule, Zoe’s times were quite respectable:

• 1 hour 35 minutes 51 seconds
  (Fri 16th April at 2:30pm)
• 1 hour 39 minutes 27 seconds
  (Fri 16th April at 7:00pm)
• 1 hour 36 minutes
  (Sat 17th April at 3:00pm)
• 1 hour 35 minutes 25 seconds
  (Sunday 18th April at 9:30am)
• 1 hour 34 minutes 17 seconds  – the fastest ! (Sunday 18th April at 2:30pm)

You can still sponsor Zoe and help her raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

• Raising £100 and you’ll enable Marie Curie Nurses to provide five hours of nursing care in a patient’s home, and if you push that to £160 it pays for a full shift. That means a terminally ill patient will get eight hours of expert care, support and relief.
• Upping your swimming challenge could mean more care provided by Marie Curie Nurses.
  Choose a 5k swim and aim to raise £500. That’s just £20 per length and you’ve helped provide 25 hours of nursing care.
• 70% of funds raised by participants in the 2010 national Swimathon will be used by Marie Curie Cancer Care to fund and support their services. The remaining 30% will be used by The Swimathon Foundation (www.swimathonfoundation.org).

You can also sponsor Zoe by going to the Swimathon main site (Swimathon.org), click on the Sponsor a Swimmer and then enter Zoe Sadler.

I think you’ll agree that Zoe deserves congratulations on her achievements. To complete just one 5k swim would be enough for most people, but to complete five over the three days deserves a special mention.

To help show your appreciation and help a worthwhile cause, why not take a few minutes and visit one of the links above and donate a few pennies.