My name is Dave & I’m a swimmer. I’ve been swimming all my life and have been teaching & coaching swimming for 25 years.

I’ve not been working since March 20th due to corona virus restrictions, so I have been spending a lot of my time in my endless swimming pool at home.

Ive decided to give a special shout out to all my family & friends who are NHS workers who are working Hard on the frontline putting their lives at risk on a daily basis.

My wife Charlotte is a health visitor & nurse. My sister Rachel is an A&E nurse. My Aunt Lara is a Nurse. Charlottes sister Sam is a Midwife & her other sister Harriet is a pharmacist.

Lots of my close friends & swimmers are doctors, nurses, pharmacists & frontline NHS workers & I really want to try & do my bit & put a shift in for them.

I also miss the wonderful swimmers I teach & coach so this one is for them also as I know they will all be missing their swimming so much. 

So..... at 7am on Thursday 23rd April, I’m gunna try and raise money for the NHS when I swim 21 miles in 12.5 hours- the average shift a nurse / doctor works. 

I appreciate this is a tough time financially but if you can, please make a small donation of any kind.

Safety & Training

- My Nurse (wife) & my son will be lifeguarding my swim all day on Thursday, giving me regular food & drink so I have the correct nutrition. 

- I have been training in my aerobic zone, at the same pace for the past few weeks, hitting between 3 & 5 miles every day. By Thursday 23rd I will have done 30 miles in my endless pool.

Social media for evidence of the swim 

My wife will be updating my social media pages so people can keep an eye on my progress throughout the day. 

I will be LIVE on Twitter all day. 

Insta -  @dave_tonge

Twitter -  @DAVET0NGE

Facebook - Dave Tonge (Cardiff)

Swim details

For the swimmers & triathletes out there wanting to know my pacing plan etc:

 - I will be holding 1.49 100m pace for the whole shift.

- This is a speed of 2 miles per hour.

- This is 9 Ironman swims Back 2 Back hitting 1 hour 10 mins each 3.8k swim.

- This is the equivalent of swimming the Channel.

- I will be having 5 mins food & drink breaks every mile in order to keep my nutrition on point & also allow my endless pool motor to have a break. 

- I will be wearing a wetsuit as my pool water is cold after having no heating & only filtration for the past 4 weeks.  (Needed to save heating costs during the lockdown.)

Wish me luck & Stay safe people

Ps I will be finished just in time for clap for carers xx