On the Easter weekend 3 members of Putney Cricket Club, Ben Brook, Paul McCann and Mark Wibberley and a separate team of 3 friends, took part in the 24-Hour fundraising swimming event, “2swim4life” at the Guildford Lido. The format – swimming a mile distance every hour on the half-hour in relay (each person completing their allotted 8 miles spread over 24 hours). The event commenced at 9.30am on Saturday, ending an exhausting 24 hours later on a bright Easter Sunday morning.
Having set up a tent on the Friday evening, the atmosphere and camaraderie around the pool was fantastic. The weather gods were very kind to us, beautiful warm 24 deg C sunny weather during the day, gave way to very cold clear night skies lit by a full moon. Night time temperatures were difficult to deal with (pulling on a wet costume in darkness in 6 deg C temperatures is not much fun, and getting into the 19 deg C water was in fact a relief at 4am!!).
Ably supported poolside by friends and family we managed to raise over £4,500 for CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young), The MIX (supporting Mental Health) and First Touch (supporting sick and prematurely born babies at St George’s – Tooting). A huge thanks to the guys above and the other team members, Maxine Bennett, Hamish Clarke and the unflappable Darren Lapham, for their support in raising the money for the charities and not forgetting poolside team of Megan Wibberley and Mark Smith for all their efforts in making sure the swimmers were ready on the half-hour, fed and watered throughout the day and night. The Virgin Money Giving page is still open for donations and we’d love to reach that magic £5k mark with the support of SW15 readers. The link is provided below where further info on the event can be found:
Many thanks.
Mark Wibberley
