I love a swim challenge and I love a good cause even more. The thought of combining the two made it totally easy to sign up for the ‘Swim 5K in September’ challenge.
https://www.sands.org.uk/get-involved/swim-5k-september
Sands supports anyone who has been affected by the death of a baby, before, during or shortly after birth. The charity is all about bereavement support. They offer a national helpline, a support app to enable families to connect and help each other. They also offer information on bereavement support resources, where and how to get help in those moments when you need it most.
The charity offer all sorts of fundraising tasks that you can get involved in but the wet and watery option was of course my first choice. Swimming 5K in any environment, be it the sea, a pool, your bath tub or a wild swimming lake was the aim. Donning the Sands swimming hat and T shirt to show off the cause during those sessions was all about raising awareness and standing up for a charity that you believe do good.
Many people close to me have accessed this service and really gained peace from its support. Loosing a baby can be a lonely and tough to get through tunnel and sometimes seem to have no light at the end. This charity is not about making it all better but it is about helping people get through a tough time.
I chose to swim in various environments and was heavily supported by some local pools and outdoor swimming facilities to complete my challenge. A big thanks to The Laura Trott Centre and to Lee Valley Watersports for allowing me to use there pools and lakes to complete my swims. Their free pool access meant that I could donate the extra pennies to this cause and to be able to speak to more new people about what I was doing and why.
https://bebroxbourne.co.uk/centres/laura-trott/
https://www.better.org.uk/leisure-centre/lee-valley/white-water-centre
It is easy to take your passion and turn something you love doing regularly into a way to raise money for people who can really benefit from it. I love to swim and be in the water and so this opportunity allowed me to do that with purpose. It should be me thanking Sands for the chance to swim with motivation and to feel like I completed a task that mattered.
A big congratulations and thank you to everyone else to took on the challenge and to those who organised it.
Swim for change. Swim for health. Swim to support a cause. Swim because you love too.
