Swimathon 2018 - a quarter century of swimming for charity

I first took part in the Swimathon twenty-four years ago in 1994.

This year I hope to take part in Swimathon 2018 at Copeland pool, Hensingham on Saturday 28th April.

So this will be the 25th consecutive year I have swum the 5,000 metre challenge.

The Swimathon is Britain’s largest charity swim, and gives people of very varied swimming abilities an opportunity to raise money for charity by swimming distances of up to 5,000 metres. The 2018 Swimathon event is in aid of Marie Curie, who look after thousands of terminally ill people, and also, for the first time, Cancer Research UK, the world’s leading cancer charity.

Marie Curie, the UK’s leading charity for people with any terminal illness and their families, has been Swimathon's charity partner ten times since it launched in 1986 and has raised over £17 million for the charity through the event during that time.

A big thank you to anyone reading this who sponsored me or any other Swimathon participant in the past.

If you sponsor me, or any of the other swimmers taking part in the world’s biggest fundraising swimming event, you will be supporting two incredible causes. You can do so online via my Justgiving page at:


https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/chris-whiteside2018

Comments

Chris Whiteside said…
This is what Marie Curie themselves told the News and Star about Swimathon 2018.

Kelly Knighting-Wykes, Marie Curie’s Fundraising Manager for Cumbria, said:

“Since Marie Curie first became a partner of Swimathon we have recruited over 150,000 swimmers and raised £12 million, which has enabled us to provide care and support to more people living with any terminal illness such as dementia, motor neurone disease or Parkinson’s disease – at the time when they need it most.

We’re hoping people across Cumbria are as excited as us about this year’s Swimathon and will join us by taking the plunge and signing up for what will be another great challenge.”
1:48 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
The Swimathon Foundation has helped thousands of people improve their health through swimming through various initiatives, including swimming programmes for those with special needs, participation schemes by youth groups, clubs for the elderly, swimming clubs and disability groups. It has also helped them to do so in ways which raised millions of pounds for all kinds of people in need, including but not limited to cancer sufferers.

The accounts and auditors statements for the Swimathon Foundation are available online via both Companies House and the government Charity Commission site: I have looked at those accounts and they appear both to be perfectly in order and to show that the majority of money raised from previous Swimathon events went to good causes.

(I would not normally bother even to mention that except that some sad individual with nothing better to do attempted to use this blog to post an attack on the Swimathon Foundation. I am satisfied that there is no merit whatsoever in that view: anyone who wishes to post such things should set up their own blog, it does not deserve any further discussion here.)
9:40 am
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