Rosie Rudin
UOSSWPC Channel relay swim
Fundraising for Alzheimer's Research UK
Story
Every 3 minutes someone in the UK is diagnosed with dementia and by 2025 it is predicted that over 1 million people in the UK will be living with dementia. It is the largest cause of death in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Alzheimer's UK are the only UK charity investing in research into dementia care, cause, cure and prevention.
9 of us crazy swimmers from the University of Sheffield Swimming and Water polo club will be swimming the channel from Dover to Calais on a postponed date of 29th June - 12th July 2021 for Alzheimer's UK. The team order will be: Rosie Rudin, Xavier Bradley, Siân Jones, Jordan Barnes, Lauren Hodgson, Brandon Hill, Kitty Price, Jack McCabe and finally Ed Saxon. We will keep rotating in this order, every hour, until we are in Dover!
We are registered for this swim with the Channel Swimming Association (https://www.channelswimmingassociation.com/) and will be officially observed and recorded. Our pilot boat will be the Viking Princess (https://www.channelswimmingassociation.com/pilots/viking-princess).
The challenge of swimming the channel is not to be underestimated. The English Channel is 21 miles but we may end up swimming much further depending on tides. The swim could take anywhere from 7 to 28 hours to complete. We will be swimming in below 14 degrees water, with wind forces of up to 6 and wave heights up to 2 metres. In comparison, the temperature of water in a swimming pool is 27 degrees.
We CANNOT wear a wetsuit for this swim to be verified and cannot touch the boat or anyone else during the swim. There will be plenty of jelly fish around and potentially plastic, rubbish or even planks of wood! The channel is the busiest shipping lane in the world with 800 tankers and 200 ferries etc passing through a day.
Recently, we all completed our 2 hour qualifying swim, without a wetsuit, in below 13 degrees water! Please help us raise as much money for this amazing cause!! This disease has affected many of us directly and so the charity means a lot to us.