St Mary’s Calne Student Swims The Channel!

  • 10 years ago
  • Uncategorized
  • 1

St Mary’s Calne girl, Felicity Challinor (UV Form), successfully completes her second relay swim across the English Channel!  

At 4.40am on Friday 5th September, Felicity, who is just 15 years old, set off on her second relay swim across the English Channel.

“Back in April I was invited by Diabetes UK to join one of their relay teams. As my Aunt suffers from Type 1 diabetes and my Grandmother from Type 2, I rose to the challenge of raising money for a disease which affects so many people in the UK.

No one English Channel crossing is ever the same as the conditions are so variable.  This time it was choppy all the way.  So swimming required all the strength and stamina I could muster to ensure we made headway before the tide turned.  The complexity of the tides means that reaching France can become an 18 hour or more feat or even not achievable. My first swim went well and I was very pleased. However, two of my team were suffering very badly from sea sickness and struggled to make good progress in their first swims so I knew that the second time I went in I had to swim even faster to make up the distance we had not covered.  I was thrilled after my second valiant swim that our team was back on track to make France.

My last swim onto the French rocks was amazing.  We completed the swim in 13 hours 5 mins which is fast, and I raised over £1,350 for Diabetes UK. One day I do plan to do a solo swim across The Channel.  On the way to achieving that goal I hope to do a relay across Lake Zurich or solos across Lake Windermere or Lake Coniston”.

Felicity Challinor, St Mary’s Calne

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