Swimmers go to great lengths

A GIRL from Kidmore End has raised more than £1,000 for an ocean protection charity after organising a distance swim challenge.

Isabella Jones, 12, swam 3km with 25 other swimmers from Henley Swimming Club, where she has been training for 18 months.

Swimmers ranging from age nine to 17 gathered at the pool at Queen Anne’s School in Caversham on Thursday last week to complete the swim.

Isabella, who attends St Joseph’s College in Reading, said that her interest in wildlife conservation was inspired by television presenters David Attenborough and Steve Backshall.

She said: “I’ve always been really passionate about wildlife and marine animals especially.

“I have raised money for WWF doing a triathlon before and I felt I wanted to do something else so I searched some charities and found the marine conservation society, which I felt was a really good fit for me because I love marine wildlife and I’ve always really loved swimming.

Isabella said that she elected to swim 3km as it was far enough to push her outside of her comfort zone without being too challenging.

Older members of the club, including team captain Tomasz Mitan, were aiming to swim a total of 5km each. Four managed 6km, which took them almost two hours.

Tomasz, who attends Piggott School in Wargrave, said that it the first of three charity events he will do this month.

He said: “The most I think I’ve ever swam continuously before is about 2km. It will be 200 lengths in total to get to 5km, so I might split it in two lots of 100 lengths. If we do half and half, it might be easier.

“I was quite surprised when Isabella asked us about this because it was one of the first times we’ve ever gathered in a group to do something for charity.

“On Sunday, I’m off to the Isle of Wight to do a charity cycle, which is a 55km, and then I’m preparing to do the Henley triathlon and Reading half marathon.”

Isabella’s mother, Victoria, supported her daughter poolside, counting laps for the swimmers from the sideline.

She said: “Isabella is fairly renowned for coming up with these ideas, which is great, she obviously has got a real interest in conservation in general and I want to encourage that, it’s a lovely thing to pursue.

“She’s a member of the marine conservation society as well so it’s a natural thing for her to want to support them.

Miles Gallagher, a business consultant who lives in Emmer Green who is head coach at Henley Swimming Club, said that he had no doubt the swimmers were capable of going the distance.

He said: “Isabella’s group and upwards will regularly swim anywhere from 2,500m to 3,000m a session.

“We’ve also got the little ones here and so we want to see if they can do 40 lengths but it really doesn’t matter. I think they’re going to surprise themselves how they manage today.

“I was blown away when Isabella first asked me because I think at the time she was only 11. She had seen Steve Backshall, she came to me and said I want to do a charity swim, and I said ‘brilliant, we’re all swimmers so we can do that’.”

Mr Gallagher shared a post about the swim online, which was then shared with Backshall by his wife, Helen.

Backshall replied with a video while on expedition in the Arctic, describing her challenge as “incredible”. To donate, visit
tinyurl.com/2f6cdwnp