A team of swimmers preparing to tackle the English Channel in aid of a hospice charity have been clowning about during training in the Forest of Dean.
Bad form? Not really as the five strong team are laying on a circus themed charity dinner to aid their fund raising efforts for St David’s Hospice Care on Friday June 7. The quintet of swimmers aim to raise £20,000 for the hospice at home charity through their swim
Team leader Gary Parker, MD of Parker & Co Accountants, said: “We’ve been putting in the miles in the outdoor swimming pool at Bathurst in Lydney and to help raise awareness of our fund raising charity dinner did a couple of lengths in full clown garb.”
Super fit Gary, a mountaineer and global expedition leader when not working as an accountant, said: “Training is going extremely well. The facilities at Bathurst are great. We have even been swimming there in the dark in 11 degrees Celsius . We now have some sea swims planned off Barry and Porthcawl. Once the team have all passed their two hour qualifying assessment swims it’ll be all systems go for the English Channel swim at the start of July.” Gary has already completed a six hour qualifying swim.
The English Channel team with Gary are Kath Lewis, Kara Williams, Dawn Lee, from Gwent and Keith Leslie, from the Forest of Dean. The five will swim in relay each spending an hour in the water. The relay team plans to cover the 21 miles (32 kms) distance from Dover to Calais, the world’s busiest shipping lane, in 15 hours.
St David’s Hospice Care Director of Fundraising and Lottery Kris Broome said: “Gary is a massive supporter of St David’s Hospice Care. This will surely be the biggest event he has been involved in for us to date after sponsoring our Christmas Ball two years in a row. We wish Gary and the rest of the team all the very best for their charity dinner and also the English Channel swim. We can’t thank them enough for their marvellous support.”