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SERPENTINE SWIM CLUB - CROSS CHANNEL RELAY
We
are a group of women who belong to London’s Serpentine Swim
Cub and we are attempting a channel crossing as a 6 member relay
team. We range in age from 25-65. Each one of us is pushing a personal
boundary in both mental and physical ability by doing the training
and the crossing. The training consists of 2-4 weekly 1K to 1Mile
swims in the Serpentine in Hyde Park, London and a weekly 1-2 hour
swim in Dover Harbour. The channel is both cold and rough and our
training is designed to reflect this. Most of us swim year round
at the Serpentine and are acclimatised to the cold, but the length
of the swim to France with current, tide and turbulence is a challenge.
We will most likely be in the boat or the water for a total of 16-20
hours.
As
an integral part of our challenge, we have chosen to support Afghan
Mother and Child Rescue (AMCR), a small hands-on charity which has
as its entire focus the welfare of women and children in one of
the poorest countries in the world. Since the formation of a democratic
government in Afghanistan, the charity has worked closely with the
Ministry of Public Health. One of the directors of the charity,
Roddy Jones, is also a member of the Serpentine swim club and swims
early every day.
The charity has also built a number of bakeries where Afghan war
widows can find employment.
Our swim is scheduled between 6 and 13 September. The team members
are funding the crossing, but we are aiming to raise £50,000
to help AMCR build a 10 bed hospital in a remote area of the Panjsher
in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health. Our Appeal
will run from now until the 29th January when we will have a gala
dinner at Skinners' Hall in London to celebrate the crossing.
To donate, the most effective way is to send a cheque directly to
the charity.
Should
you be a UK tax payer please send your donation as a Gift Aid as
this will add 28% to the sum which you donate.
This
will be the first of many updates on the swim and the Appeal. If
you would like to keep updated, please respond by email. If you
would like to be invited to the gala dinner, please include your
address and telephone numbers.
Please
do aid our appeal by donating to the AMCR. The charity offers a
unique frontline opportunity to give directly without committees
or middlemen being involved.
Serpentine
Swim Club swimmers- the ladies are some of
those taking part in the channel relay swim
Alice
Constance 26
Alice
was born in Southampton and moved to London 8 years ago. She now
lives in Earlsfield and has been a member of Serpentine for 2 years.
Alice
joined the team late in the season as a fantastic support to us
all. She is by far the fastest and strongest swimmer on the team.
Last
year Alice competed in another Serpentine challenge, the Arch to
Arc (Marble Arch to Arc de Triomphe, running, swimming, cycling)
relay in aid of the Royal British Legion. She decided on a solo
channel swim this year as a major challenge. Sakura Hingley, another
solo swimmer and long time member of the Serpentine, was by Alice's
side to train throughout the challenge. Alice completed the heroic
swim on July 14th in 12 hours 36 minutes in increasingly unfriendly
conditions.
The
Constance family were keen sailors and always on the water…but
not necessarily in it!! Alice has been a self determined swimmer
and is one of the top athletes at the Serpentine.
Clare Doyle 64
I was born in 1944, and have now been drawing a state pension for
more than four years! That in no way means I have stopped being
active - as a socialist agitator, writer and organiser or as a keen
winter swimmer. I have travelled widely in Asia and Europe and lived
in Russia from 1990 to 1995 (where I swam in ice-covered lakes).
I am a member of the Socialist Party (formerly Militant, expelled
from the Labour Party in the early '80s for being too socialist!)
My father was a vicar, my mother a vicar's wife, (though I always
thought her talents and scientific training were under-used in that
job!)! My grandfather was an artist, Sidney Paget who became the
chief illustrator of the Sherlock Holmes stories, creating the famous
deer-stalker and curved pipe image.
I grew up (if ever I did!) in Cornwall. I went to Sussex University,
and a bit later trained as a teacher, doing five years in primary
and nursery schools. In 1968 I married a Geordie who had stayed
at my place the night before a big anti-Vietnam War protest. We
were single again before three years were up and luckily before
any children 'came along'! I had no children in other relationships
either. (Pity! Now I want to be a grandmother!)
My involvement in this team relay across the Channel stems from
swimming at the Serpentine (all year round) and getting to know
Anne Mc Alpine who has done wonders getting the team together. I
haven't done much training at all, but see this as a challenge demanding
determination rather than a particular skill! I have had no difficulty
in staying committed, especially since I have known I am definitely
participating and have been getting to know my team-mates. It promises
to be a challenge - an exciting endeavour with an interesting and
diverse group of women.
I am not really involved in the charity as such but support its
work. I am totally against the war in Afghanistan and admire the
efforts of Roddy and others who try to relieve just a little of
the suffering that ordinary people, especially working class and
poor women, have to endure because of the devastation of the war
and the widespread poverty of the region.
Martha Fray
56
I grew in the American Pacific Northwest, land of cold water, tall
trees and tall tales - one that my father spun as we swam down what
seemed like a long stretch of Lake Washington concerned a woman
who swam the English Channel. Since that day at age 11, the prospect
of swimming the Channel has called my name.
I have
always loved swimming and always loved cold water. In Puget Sound,
in San Francisco Bay, in the Baltic of my ancestors and, now that
I live in London, in the Serpentine. My two teen-age daughters are
ardent members of the Polar Bear Club on Orcas Island, swimming
at dawn with their friends, and they are avid Cornwall surfers.
When
Anne asked in February if I wanted to join the team, there was only
one answer. Swimming is my exercise and my meditation. To swim for
AMCR is to swim for all women and all men, everywhere. When I feel
tired or bored and I know I have another hour in Dover Harbour,
I reflect on the lives of women in Afghanistan and the lives of
women I know and my own life and the lives of my daughters' and
the men who share our collective worlds. I know my team mates are
out there doing the same and that our combined effort with Roddy
and AMCR will make a significant difference -- in the lives of women
children and families in the Panjshir Valley and in our own hearts
and in the hearts of those we love. And then I get a wave in the
face, and I remember how much I adore swimming in the sea and how
it brings me alive and makes me laugh, and I keep going and give
thanks to Roddy and to Anne for organising such wonderful madness.
Lorraine Jones 56
I was
born and raised in the East End of London. My childhood memories
are of playing in the streets; enjoying street parties and my father
playing a guitar and singing Jazz. It was a happy upbringing and
I believe gave me a sense of fun and a love of meeting people. I
met my husband Norman 38 years ago and we live in West London and
have 2 daughters and 2 granddaughters.
I worked
as a senior manager in an infertility unit at Hammersmith Hospital
for 25 years. During that time various fundraising events took place
in the department to support the scientists that I worked with.
In the last 7years I have been fortunate to have completed five
300 mile cycle rides for charity in Turkey, Cuba, Egypt and India
twice and I have clocked up about 10.000 miles in training! I have
Crohn's disease and the unpredictability can cause havoc. These
events are difficult for the physically fit but if you get constant
stomach upsets and colic it sometimes and feels like it's all too
much but then I think ' I can sit an armchair and still get stomach
aches etc and achieve nothing or I can do something.
My
involvement with the Serpentine Swimming Club in Hyde Park is through
my husband who swims there throughout the year in all weathers.
I have always wanted to do a Channel Relay but found swimming in
the cold very difficult. When Ann asked me to join the team I said
yes straight away, the next day though I thought oh what have done!
But I started swimming again in April at the local pool then graduated
to the Serpentine and Dover. It has not been easy but I cannot resist
a challenge and I do so want to succeed for the Afghan Mother and
Child Rescue.
Anne
Macalpine-Leny 51
I come from the US and now when I go back, I call Charlottesville,
Virginia home. I have lived in London for 22 years and have two
teenage sons. My eldest son trained for the Channel in 2004 with
Harrow School when the Eton-Harrow Channel swim took place.
I work as a consultant in health care strategy and I'm trained as
a natural health practitioner. I am a member of the Serpentine Swim
Club and go there most days throughout the year. I first became
involved in channel swimming when my son trained in 2004. I was
inspired by Kevin Murphy and his wife Jane, end they both encouraged
me to take this on. What has kept me going during the training is
the enthusiasm of my team mates. When I think I might just be as
crazy as my kids think I am, someone gives me a ring or shows up
and lets me know how much they want to do this. And that makes it
all worth while.
Swimming for the charity also makes this very important to me. I
learned about Afghan Mother and Child Rescue from Roddy Jones on
his morning swims at the Serpentine. It just makes sense that this
group of strong and independent women are supporting something as
critical as maternity care in remote areas of Afghanistan. The daily
challenges these women face makes our small effort seem like nothing.
Maree Mitchell 31
I grew
up in western NSW Australia, a town called Bathurst.
I have lived in London for 7 years. I am a theatre nurse at a private
independent hospital in central London.
I came to join the serpentine swimming club as I entered the London
triathlon in 2007, and needed to practice swimming in open water.
I have since done about 4 triathlons. I have always known how to
swim but open cold water presents a whole new challenge.
I was lucky to meet Anne through a fellow serpentine member and
the rest is history!
I also find it particularly rewarding and motivating to be doing
our swim for such a special charity. Roddy is truly an amazing man,
and the charity provides amazing relief for those in need.
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