Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. I know that when you hear what ridiculous thing I have decided to do you will be ready to be generous!

Just recently one of my friends said I needed a challenge. Apparently I took them seriously:

On 6^th June I will be swimming from Alcatraz to San Francisco with three of my friends. This is a notoriously difficult swim through freezing water with hazardous currents…..and lets not forget the sharks! Alcatraz Island was chosen to be used as a penitenary specifically because it was thought that should an inmate ever escape the actual prison then they would never be able to complete the swim to shore. Only one inmate ever proved them wrong, John Paul Scott in 1962, and he was so exhausted when he got to shore that the boys that found him thought he was a failed suicide attempt and called for help. The police apprehended him within minutes of his reaching landfall. Two others drowned in a separate attempt and 5 are listed as ‘missing, presumed drowned’. This will not be easy.

It is a 1.5-mile swim, not including currents. The water temperature will be about 15 degrees Celsius (that’s about 60 degree Fahrenheit or, as I call it, ‘Seriously Freezing!’). I will have a wetsuit but we are not allowed gloves or boots and the wetsuit does have to fill before it starts working. Any of you who know me well will realise that the cold is one of my greatest fears. We only get 75minutes to complete the challenge or they pull us out as it is considered “very hazardous” to spend longer in the water. Additionally, as if we do not have enough to think about, the water is genuinely shark infested.

I really want someone to benefit from my stupidity so I decided to do this for charity. In the past few years more than one person in my life has been diagnosed with cancer. Therefore, I have decided to support Macmillan Cancer Support. If you don’t know who they are then I hope you never have to, but they are a fabulous organisation who are there to improve the lives of people affected by cancer. They provide practical, medical, emotional and financial support and push for better cancer care. One in three of us will get cancer. Two million of us are living with it now. Please help me help them.

This is a tougher challenge than I realized when I signed up. I am actually training pretty hard as I now comprehend that swimming in open water is not as simple as I anticipated. I recently met a competitive tri-athelete that had done this swim last year. He gulped pretty hard when I said I was doing it. So give a little or give a lot, do what you can! You could think of your pledge as a kind of bet?!

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Wish me luck!

 

Hi everyone!!!

I am echoing all of the above written by Sula and am also attempting this very silly swim and I am hoping that the thought of sharks, sea lions and other weird and wonderful things in the water will make me swim as fast as possible to get out all the sooner!!!!

I hope that you will help us raise as much as possible for this very important charity, MacMillan Cancer Support, and

do appreciate any support that you can give.

Thanks alot

Rajah

xxx