Update 28th June 2011

We're nearly there now - keep everything crossed for us! Our wave is the pink wave at 14:35 on Saturday 2nd July. Carla's number is 6185 if you want to check results afterwards. Maxine doesn't have her number yet but we will let you know.

Maxine has been swimming in the lake and is managing the most amazing times - she managed 1000m in 20 minutes which is fantastic for breast stroke.Her imagination is running wild about all the things which lurk at the bottom of the lake so these fast times are born out of pure panic! Swim Maxine swim...it's behind you...it's reaching out for your feet...aaarrrrggghhh!!

Carla has not had any Open Water practice as she has been ill a lot in the last three months. Still she was back in the pool last night and managed one mile in 45 minutes which was the target she set herself this year. However she has discovered that she can hardly swim at all wearing her thick Ironman wetsuit, so there is a last minute panic going on to get a nice stretchy one like Maxines.

Thank you once again for all the support and we welcome your suggestions for our next Charity challenge.

Update 9th June 2011

Well what can we say! You've helped us smash through the first target of £1000, so we are very sorry but we have put the target up to £1500! Can't have people getting complacent and thinking we don't need your help any more! We're so very grateful that you have taken the time to donate - this is a very big challenge for both of us and the only reward we need us to see the total collected grow and grow and grow!

We've sacrificed everything to do this - evenings on the sofa, lie-ins at the week end, smelling of perfume rather than chlorine, shiny hair, nice skin round our eyes, evenings out with friends!

Any donation however small is really appreciated - just buy one less coffee or one less bottle of wine to show us your support.

Maxine STILL does not have a wetsuit which is very worrying and Carla still hasn't shifted any of her middle aged spread. How can two sisters be so different! Still at least we are united in our effort to make a really big difference to the Child Bereavement Charity by taking on this personal challenge.

Just wait and see! Next year we might even swim the Channel.

Thanks for your support and keep donating...

 

 

Update from both of us 23rd May 2011

Firstly THANK YOU for the generous donations - there are some very large donations on this page, but to those of you reading this for the first time and thinking about a donation we are grateful and amazed by any support. We promise to keep swimming and refuse all offers of help from the rescue boats! We are also available to join the Olympic team for either UK or Germany should any athletes get sick at the last minute...

Well if anyone reading is good at matching wetsuit brands to different body types NOW is the time to step forward. Poor old Maxine is in danger of having to rub her body with goose fat (volunteers please) and keep warm the old fashioned way in the style of an early cross channel swimmer. As I already told you Maxine is the tall skinny one, and ladies wetsuits are too short in the body, whereas mens wetsuits are too baggy. Wetsuits need to be skin tight to do their job and keep you warm and poor Max is really going to need this wetsuit as she doesn't have any body fat anyway! Please if you have a contact with a wetsuit manufacturer get in touch with us now. 

I have no such problem! I have a wetsuit and a layer of my own body fat. If people reading this are non swimmers I should also share that you wee in your wetsuit to keep warm as well. As if the thought of swimming in the Thames was not bad enough without knowing that 7000 people have just had a wee!

We must go now as we both have some swimming to do...in the pool...with a floor...and sides... and you can see the bottom...unlike the Thames! 

Carla's Update 7th May 2011

Training is hard to fit in as I took the decision to go back to work full time and have started a new job at Clarenco LLP. Small world as they are the force behind The Clare Foundation where the Child Bereavement Charity now have their offices! Still where there is a will there is a way, so I now go to Wycombe Pool late in the evening on Mondays and Wednesdays when they take the wall down and you are able to swim 50 metre lengths. I'm still having to pinch myself that I can do a 50m length. This time last year that was unthinkable. Since starting my new job I have been annoying everyone with a chest infection and also I sprained my knee trying to do the breast stroke and had to use the disabled lift at work! I'm not the best advert for swimming being good for you and I don't think they fancy my chances much!!

Maxine has opted for the breaststroke and I will have to stick with front crawl now as I don't fancy other knee injury. Maxine owns about 15 pairs of goggles in the never ending search to find a pair which minimise the 'panda eye' effect. I think everyone suffers from this but the two of us are no spring chickens and the skin is a little less elastic these days! Maxine is apparently out wetsuit shopping this weekend with hopefully a photo to follow. 

Thanks for taking the time to visit our Just Giving page.

We are two sisters with a combined age of 99 (100 by the date of the swim)! We are raising money for the Child Bereavement Charity.

 

Take a look at this video featuring the Child Bereavement Charity's  Patron HRH Prince William speaking about the loss of his mother. As a family of four siblings we have had our share of life's ups and downs but believe they are nothing compared to the loss of close family members. We were fortunate to have our Dad until he was 71 (still not long enough) and since 1996 we have been so lucky to have our Mum and each other in good health.

 

It's so important not to take each day for granted. We appreciate our health but we're also very aware of how little we have physically achieved with it. So, better late than never we are releasing the inner Olympians to raise money for this amazing charity!

 

We don't really look like sisters - one of us is tall and skinny, the other average height with well padded bones!!!

 

Last year Carla (the well padded one) couldn't swim until she started to work for FunSwimShop. She challenged herself to enter the British Gas Great London Swim (one mile in the Thames where she could not stand on the floor or sit on the side) to try and raise money for the Child Bereavement Charity. The mission was accomplished with pride in a rather lengthy 1 hour, 13 minutes and 33 seconds. This year her goal is to try and complete the course in around 45 minutes!

 

Maxine (the skinny one) came to support her in 2010 (along with their other sister Anita and Carla's daughter Cerys).

 

Maxine was so impressed by Carla's achievements, the atmosphere on the day, the organisation, the medal she was awarded and the experience of swimming in an Olympic venue that she pledged there and then to take on the same challenge herself in 2011! 

 

Maxine has had much involvement with the Olympic Games and with her tall slim build she has often been mistaken for an athlete despite doing NO sport!! Well it's finally time to 'muscle up' and earn these compliments! 

 

Carla is training in High Wycombe and Maxine is training in Munich and they will be swimming together in the wave after the Elite athletes! Yikes!! 

 

They will both be raising money for the Child Bereavement Charity which is local to Carla in High Wycombe and supports familes and educates professionals both when a child dies and when a child is bereaved

 

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 Child Bereavement 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 - we raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

 

So please dig deep and donate now.