Trio swimming coastline for Business Beats Cancer
THREE islanders have taken on a swimming challenge to raise funds for a cancer charity.
Alan Ellis, John Lewis and Nick Wild are aiming to swim 188km around the Guernsey coastline. They started in April and the challenge will culminate in a 10km swim from Guernsey to Sark. They aim to raise at least £10,000 for Business Beats Cancer.
Neale Jehan, from the charity, said that money raised would fund clinical trials at Southampton, as well as travel for those affected by cancer.
‘I was approached a few years ago to help raise funds from the business community for Cancer Research UK,’ he said.
‘So, we launched an initiative to raise funds to give a direct benefit to patients.
‘We developed something that is a two-pronged approach to both fund clinical trials at Southampton but also to fund travel for patients in Guernsey to go and access those trials.
‘We approached businesses on the island from an ESG perspective to give something back, but also for challenges like these guys are doing, which is fantastic.’
Nick Wild attended one of Business Beats Cancer’s presentations and wanted to help.
‘I’ve always been a strong swimmer and in the last few years since retiring, do lots of sea swimming with a couple of friends who are also retired,’ he said.
‘I’d always wanted to swim to Sark, so we built that into the initiative.
‘Then we came up with the idea that the three of us who are swimming have a combined age of 188, so thought a target of 188km – which roughly works out as one for every day between April and the end of September – would work.
‘As we’re getting older, more and more of our friends and relatives are being impacted by cancer, so it seems the right thing to do at this stage of our lives.’
Fellow swimmer John Lewis said that the additional swim to Sark was a different challenge.
‘We’re going to have our game on if we hope to get there; we mustn’t underestimate the challenge it’s going to be,’ he said.
‘We need to do it on a really good day and have all the dice in our favour.’
The trio are being supported in their efforts by Rocq Capital.
Chairman Stuart Perfitt said that the company was delighted to assist with the challenge.
n To donate: https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/188-challenge-guernsey-to-sark-swim
